The return Of Owen?

Bolton want to sign Crystal Palace midfielder Owen Garvan, who is a free agent in June.

The 25-year-old has scored four goals in 26 Championship games this season.

Bolton boss Dougie Freedman worked with the midfielder while he was at Palace.

...I hope you all liked the title

No not really!

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I thought the tosser had actually found himself another job - he is after all the best manager he's ever been!

I thought you meant the antichrist for a moment boggers.

According to reports Dougie is after Owen Garvan who is out of contract in June. No surprise he's from Palace. He isan attacking midfielder and with us lacking attacking midfield options and Mark Davies out for another 8 months then he could slot in quite well.

Not sure about this target. Sounds like he's preparing for the Championship next season and if by some miracle we do get promoted, players like this could be dead weight.

Managers usually have a list of targets at this time. If you don't get one you move on nto the next. Probably crossing off some names if promotion is attained. Also linked with striker Acuna in Spain. I watched him whilst there last Sunday playing for Girona in a dull 0 - 0 draw at Elche.

He's interested in the players he rates for "whatever league we're in" Thats good enough for me.

If Palace go up and we don't he will likely stay put I would think. I know nowt about him though....is he a regular in the Palace team?

Hipster_Nebula wrote:He's interested in the players he rates for "whatever league we're in" Thats good enough for me.

Yeah but that's an ambiguous statement though.
Does it mean the players he's after could play in any league, or does it mean his targets are for the specific league we'll be in i.e. he's planning for a specific league?

wanderlust wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:He's interested in the players he rates for "whatever league we're in" Thats good enough for me.

Yeah but that's an ambiguous statement though.
Does it mean the players he's after could play in any league, or does it mean his targets are for the specific league we'll be in i.e. he's planning for a specific league?

He can't plan for a specific league as he doesn't know what league we're going to be in.

But he can bring in players capable of playing in the premier league ie Medo, so we'll be promotion chasers next year if we don't make the prem.

well obviously he thinks these players are of a standard, or potentially, of a standard to be in the premier league, or are ones to stash for the future.

i doubt the "big" signings would come until we know where we are.

bwfc1874 wrote:

wanderlust wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:He's interested in the players he rates for "whatever league we're in" Thats good enough for me.

Yeah but that's an ambiguous statement though.
Does it mean the players he's after could play in any league, or does it mean his targets are for the specific league we'll be in i.e. he's planning for a specific league?

He can't plan for a specific league as he doesn't know what league we're going to be in.

But he can bring in players capable of playing in the premier league ie Medo, so we'll be promotion chasers next year if we don't make the prem.

So you're saying that Dougie's plan is to recruit premier standard players who are willing to play for us in the Championship if necessary?
And he's doing this without knowing what transfer budget will be available to him?
Don't you think it would be wiser to see if we get promoted first (which should mean an increase in the transfer funds available) and then target players in line with the budget?

wanderlust wrote:

bwfc1874 wrote:

wanderlust wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:He's interested in the players he rates for "whatever league we're in" Thats good enough for me.

Yeah but that's an ambiguous statement though.
Does it mean the players he's after could play in any league, or does it mean his targets are for the specific league we'll be in i.e. he's planning for a specific league?

He can't plan for a specific league as he doesn't know what league we're going to be in.

But he can bring in players capable of playing in the premier league ie Medo, so we'll be promotion chasers next year if we don't make the prem.

So you're saying that Dougie's plan is to recruit premier standard players who are willing to play for us in the Championship if necessary?
And he's doing this without knowing what transfer budget will be available to him?
Don't you think it would be wiser to see if we get promoted first (which should mean an increase in the transfer funds available) and then target players in line with the budget?

You may be right, but Id expect the players he's targeting for the end of the month to be young talent which can develop into premiership quality (Sainsbury?)or the likes of Medo who he believes already are.

In which case whichever division we're in he feels they will be assets to us. Whoever they are, playing for Bolton will be a step up regardless of the division.

If we did get promoted we'd maybe spend 10-15 million on some quality players. If we don’t we’d add a couple more like C Davies, and build a solid championship squad for next year.

He's obviously just seen a couple of players who he likes, i assume, get to the end of their deals and has wanted to get the jump on others.

Unless these players turn out to be huge wage journeymen looking for a payday I'm not sure what there is to fuss about.

I'll wait and see who they are, and how they perform and then we can "slam" him if they turn out to be garbage.

I'd imagine Dougie thinks Garvan has the potential to be a Premier league player. Garvan is on a Bosman, so he's potentially not a risky target.

I just find it hard to get excited about a 25 year old left-footed central midfielder who has peaked. Championship benchwarmer at best from what my Palace mate tells me. Dougie must see something I don't which would be a surprise seeing as Dougie dropped him at Palace.
Dougie was alledgedly after Jedinak before he got Medo and now he's after Jedinak's understudy. I understand squad building but this kind of deal worries me. Is everybody else leaving if we don't go up? And what will we do with Garvan if we do? Just seems a bit impetuous to do this before the season's over.

Is this definitely true? Seems a bit of a convenient rumour to me. Should we not get promoted I'd see it as being more likely.

The Jedinak rumour was another press rumour we were never going to shell out for him and Palace wouldn't let him go, it always happens when a manager leaves he's linked with his old players. As we were for Glenn Murray and Jonathan Williams too.