I'm looking forward to League 1

Now this may sound strange but seeing as we almost definitely going down i've been thinking about League 1 recently and to be honest i'm not that upset and am strangely looking forward to it.

For a lot of the younger Bolton fans this is going to be a new experience and a massive culture shock but for us older fans like me it will bring back happy memories of lower league football, great cup runs and actually feeling like as a fan you mattered to the club. 

Most of my happiest memories of being a Bolton fan are from our times lower down the league, i first started going to games in the old Division 4 as a 15 year old and loved it.

Yes it's still going to be a struggle and we need to cut our cloth accordingly but i'm hoping the younger players can step up and show what they're made of

So come on lets stop sulking (yes you LPP) and lets embrace getting back to real football and not those prima donnas in headbands rolling around penalty boxes when someone breaks wind in their direction.

Come on, who's with me?

Like you Norpig,I remember our Div 4 Days.
Seemed like a disaster at the time,but it didn't stop me going.
I'll support them,regardless. Let's embrace it.

Funny how the memory of being 0-4 down at half time away at Molyneux in 1988 and having hot tea poured on us by their fans in the upper tier is still fairly fresh in the memory but I have little or no recollection of anything to do with when we played FK Rabonicki in the UEFA cup, ten years later.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Fourth Division and have decided to go to as many games as I can next season.

There's far too much pressure associated with professional football nowadays and it'll be nice to kick back and just enjoy the football without ridiculously high levels of expectation for a change.

Provided they don't try and charge us thirty five quid a ticket to attend games against Rochdale and Bury, that is.

If they do that, they can shove it.

glad to hear you're going to go next season Breaders, although crowds will drop i think it may bring out a few fans whoa have been disillusioned with the way football is now especially in the Premiership

Looking forward to moving towards being a financially stable club again, glad to see early signs of SS making good decisions. In an ideal world we'll hold onto some of our talented players but we'll get cash for them if not and invest in decent league one players which will give us a chance to come straight back up and build from there

that's the spirit Boggers 

Norpig wrote:glad to hear you're going to go next season Breaders, although crowds will drop i think it may bring out a few fans whoa have been disillusioned with the way football is now especially in the Premiership

I've already spoken to a couple of my mates who've stopped going because of the reasons you cite and it looks like we may be getting the band back together. 

It's the away days that I'm really looking forward to - always miles better than home games.

For months I've been thinking it would be grim to go down, it's taken me a while to realise that these players we have now just do not care about Bolton Wanderers. They might be better than we'll attract in league one ability wise but as long as we replace them with players who work hard every game we'll be ok and it will be much more enjoyable to support the club.

Our road back to the big time starts in August.

I seem to remember a similar enthusiasm to getting relegated to the Championship, and obviously it's just been four years of footballing hell.

League One is great if you've got a good team like Rioch's, no doubt about it, but if you don't play your cards right as we tend not to it's just like the Championship but with poorer football, smaller grounds and smaller crowds.

Nobody will be calling it the league of "real football" if come January we're closer to the bottom than we are the top, it will just be a shitty little league that we're desperate to get out of.

It's just crucial to make all the right decisions between now and August, and not take it for granted that we'll go right back up, because bigger clubs than us have spent many years at a time in League One.

Bloody hell Doffy stop spoiling the positivity, it was all going so well.... 

We wont't come back up, we'll be lucky to avoid going down again. As to SS making "good decisions" that may be the funniest post I've read today. They asked Liverpool to "defer" a payment of 100K until the summer in order to allow the new manager to pick Jay Spearing because right now we can't without triggering a clause in the deal to buy him and they can't afford to pay it. 

Boy that really fills me with optimism that our new owners are going to be able to balance the books and not saddle us with yet more debt that will prevent us from strengthening the squad come the summer. Not.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:We wont't come back up, we'll be lucky to avoid going down again. As to SS making "good decisions" that may be the funniest post I've read today. They asked Liverpool to "defer" a payment of 100K until the summer in order to allow the new manager to pick Jay Spearing because right now we can't without triggering a clause in the deal to buy him and they can't afford to pay it. 

Boy that really fills me with optimism that our new owners are going to be able to balance the books and not saddle us with yet more debt that will prevent us from strengthening the squad come the summer. Not.

How do you know they can't afford it? Nixon said they could they chose not to pay it.

Think I'll believe him over you

What league we play in has never bothered me. As long as the squad we are able to assemble can realistically compete there should be some competitive football on display, and with any luck a chance of pushing for promotion.

I also grew up on lower league football and loved every minute (well, almost) of witnessing our rise to the top flight and amazing cup runs - not something you can enjoy when you're a mediocre team struggling to survive in the top division. It's nice to see your team compete with the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal etc. but at the end of the day I go to watch Bolton and couldn't care less who the opposition is - Man Utd, Preston, Bury, Orient - it's all the same to me. If we can outplay them and get the points its been a good day. If they're infinitely better than us week after week then its no fun.

If we can find our level again in League 1, and are luckily enough to get the management right, we will have something to look forward to again. If its anywhere near as exciting as the last time then it will be one hell of a ride.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:We wont't come back up, we'll be lucky to avoid going down again. As to SS making "good decisions" that may be the funniest post I've read today. They asked Liverpool to "defer" a payment of 100K until the summer in order to allow the new manager to pick Jay Spearing because right now we can't without triggering a clause in the deal to buy him and they can't afford to pay it. 

Boy that really fills me with optimism that our new owners are going to be able to balance the books and not saddle us with yet more debt that will prevent us from strengthening the squad come the summer. Not.

 right LPP, enough already. i'm trying to cheer folk up then you turn up...

Never understood the argument that it will benefit us if we go down.
Granted we are down, but surely the aim in any division is to gain promotion if that's the case why would you want to go down?

The truth any division is great with a winning team, but what if we are just mid table and no cup run.
I think the memory plays tricks and we only remember the good bits, the reality could be somewhat different. For me we need to be Championship minimum, The 100k Spearing fee is a tad worrying, but time will tell.

Still go home and away with the youngest, being in division 1 will allow us to stick a few different pins in our road trip map, before we inevitably win our way back to the prem and into the champions league, we have a special pin already selected for when we play Barcelona.

Double next season, JPP, and league, Wemberleeeeeeeee.

I remember the aspirations when this site was born. 

Copper Dragon wrote:I remember the aspirations when this site was born. 

Did they have anything to do with gay sex, teenage pregnancy, conspiracy theories and fine dining or were those bits written into the Memorandum and Articles of Association at a later date?

it's all about being realistic Copper, plus we've had a few doom and gloom merchants on here recently so i thought lets put a positive spin on things. League 1 isn't great but lets try and enjoy it anyway.

Its a different world than your team, you can enjoy the Prem and finish bottom and still get £100million