Graham Coughlan has told Swindon Town they face a battle to sign Kyle Bennett claiming he has no plans to sell the winger to the League Two club.
After failing to nail down a first-team spot at Bristol Rovers , Bennett signed for the Robins on loan in January and has impressed with four goals in 11 appearances at the County Ground.
Swindon manager League Two club confirm interest in signing Bristol Rovers winger Kyle Bennett he would dearly love to turn the 28-year-old's loan into a permanent but Coughlan wants to keep him in Bristol.
Having signed from Portsmouth in January 2018, Bennett's contract situation is unclear, as Rovers never make terms of their players public, but Coughlan insists his deal does go beyond this summer and Swindon will have to pay serious money to sign him.
"I was happy for Kyle to stay, Kyle was happy to stay but he wanted to play and didn't want to waste any more time and you have to respect that," Coughlan said.
"I ain't gonna make any promises to anybody that you're guaranteed a start, you have to earn it. We'll sit down with him and see what he's thinking and see what's best for everybody.
"Kyle is a good player, it was never in any doubt that he was going to go and do well.
"I've been over and I've seen him on several occasions, to see him play. Swindon are on a high, they're on the crest of a wave.
"No doubt Kyle will have suitors in the summer, but I wouldn't rule out Kyle Bennett coming back to this football club and playing here as of next season.
"He will have suitors, and I'm pretty sure Bristol Rovers will be one of the suitors.
"Like I say, I'm not going to hold anyone here under duress. If someone doesn't want to come back that's their prerogative, we'll sit down and talk.
"The ball is well and truly in Kyle's court, if he wants to come back he comes back, if he doesn't want to then that's a separate conversation.
"He'll be back unless Swindon come back in with a multi-million pound offer [laughs]."
League Two club confirm interest in signing Bristol Rovers winger Kyle Bennett
Although Bennett's future is uncertain what he does provide is pace and width , something that Coughlan admits his team has lacked in their fight for League One survival.
With the Good Friday trip to AFC Wimbledon offering an opportunity to all-but guarantee their position in League One, two other fringe wide men could come in from the cold and play a key role in the final phases of the season.
Alex Rodman returned to the first-team picture as a second-half substitute in the 3-2 victory over Bradford having been out with an undisclosed injury while wing-back Daniel Leadbitter is also working his way back to full fitness after a long absence and completed 90 minutes for the Development Squad in midweek.
"They're back to fitness, they played a game on Monday," Coughlan added. "It's just monitoring them, getting some more game time under their belts. Naturally we don't want any reoccurence of old injuries.
"They'll give us legs, they'll give us width, give us a little bit of height as well. I've not been able to play with much width over the last two-three months, where as Tareiq (Holmes-Dennis) and Sercs (Liam Sercombe) have being doing jobs, and as you've seen Gavin Reilly and Alex Jakubiak have been doing jobs, but they're not really the wide men, that's not their natural positions.
"It'll be nice to play with a bit of width and obviously they'll be fresh as well. I'm going to have many a headache between now and Friday picking a team."
