Who is to blame for this?

Ok where does one start with this?

Is it Eddie Davies fault for not investing more in the club - maybe he hasn't got the money?

or Gartside for picking Lee, Megson, Coyle and now Freedman - but he did pick Allardyce?

or Megson and Coyle for basically buying overpriced and / or shite players?

or Freedman for some strange picks - including Knight as captain - but he can only pick from the scraps he's had to spend and the players he's been left with?

or is it the players - who seem to have no fight and no pride?

or is it the defence - hard to get motivated when you know your team mates are going to gift a goal or two away - every game!

or is it the fans - we do tend to get on the manager and players backs for every little thing?

So what the fuck is it?

Three votes to use -

The truth is it's all of them to a certain degree.

But football is all about the manager and players. Many of these players were signed by Dougie, not one of them seems a good buy right now. And while Coyle left him some absolute shite, it doesn't mean Dougie has to pick them. The continued backing of Zat Knight is a disgrace, but after making him captain it's clear he's the first name on the teamsheet every week.

I'd like to get rid of the whole squad, but as that's never going to happen Freedman has to take the blame.

Bit of a mixture, but most of the blame is on these players, especially the defence. They look like pub players! Blame must also go to Dougie for picking them..

Gartside, appoints the managers, sanctions the signings, built up the debts which makes us unable to make signings.

Get Gartside out!

They all have to take the blame, but you can't keep sacking manager after manager (Freedman out ).

But Gartside has to go, he's hired another clown that will send us down, no question.

I just hope Freedman resigns now and save us some money.

I voted for, the team, the defence and Dougie.

I still have faith in him as a manager and really hope the club stick with him as he's the best we can get IMO. But he has to take some of the flak at the moment (which Im sure he'd accept himself), the balance of the team just isn't right. Like under Coyle we don't attack or defend well enough as a unit and for that Dougie has to take some blame. Given the right backing Im positive he can turn us around, we need a win and some confidence desperately though and the sooner we bring in a Dawson type center back the better.

Well we haven't won a league game since Dawson went back to WBA probably says it all.

Gartside for picking 3 piss poor managers....Dougie for failing to sort out one of the worst defences in boltons history and the players for just not giving 100% and giving up as soon as they concede one goal.

Some fans are saying changing the manager isn't the way forward but their is no other way forward if we carry on like this.

I voted 2, 3 and 5. We have some duds signed on good money and long term contracts that we couldn't give away - much less recoup money for. I think our Douglas made Zat the captain hoping to psychologically motivate him into getting his head out of his own arse - with the understanding that Doug has no problem in cutting captains loose when the need arises. Just now, though, we are saddled with crap defenders. Not Doug's fault.

Gartside has presumably sanctioned the purchase of these duds and the terms of the contracts they were given and now we have a lot of players who are of very little use to us. How many of our players that we started the pre-season with, were linked to other clubs?

The common thread was "there were no inquiries". Coyle hasn't come asking for any of the players he gave such good contracts here - clearly he has improved as a manager since he was here and sees that they are indeed quite shit.

This leaves us in the situation where we have to sell to buy - but we can't sell players that nobody wants to buy. Now for the players. Play with some pride and honest effort, you bunch of overpaid ponces!

I blame Gartside, but not for his managerial choices, but for taking too long in sacking Coyle. Had he sacked Coyle when we were terrible we could have still stayed up and things would be very different to what they are now.

I am not too critical of Freedman, the players he has are shit, I mean seriously - should this team of players be doing well? No! we have a terrible midfield and defence. It is hard to improve that when have so little money to spend.

Tierney
Baptiste
Hall
Craig Davies
Medo

All players signed by Dougie, all absolute shite.

Coyle can still take some of the blame, but at some point people are going to have to accept Freedman couldn't spot a good player at a Barcelona player auction.

1

Natasha Whittam wrote:Tierney
Baptiste
Hall
Craig Davies
Medo

All players signed by Dougie, all absolute shite.

Coyle can still take some of the blame, but at some point people are going to have to accept Freedman couldn't spot a good player at a Barcelona player auction.

But you said Baptiste was a really good signing when we got him. You vagina.

Best thing for Doogie to do is just write this game off ..... and start over with the next game.  Strangely we have most of the possession today which is usual for starters and normally that would lead to points.

Overall though there's no quality in this team ....and you can't make silk purse out of a sow's ear.

The first and third goals were because of straight giveaways in midfield...just flat out poor passes left us with men stranded up the park and we were fooked. Now it's a good job we planned for Rhodes ...he only scored two....instead of four....so nice job there.
Then as last week ...we are goals behind as doogie takes of Ngog who was the only one who looked likley at that point.....leaves Beckford on who barely touched the ball in the second half.

My prediction for this season was midtable now I'll say bottom half ...... we won't get relegated only because there are worse teams than us in the long run.

Just for curiosity I would like to hear from someone who thinks this is a promotion team and why.

I still blame mainly Coyle, for buying rubbish that Dougie inherited and still can't get shut of. Mills, Ream & Mears have been hawked around all summer, but there are no takers. That trio are on around £60K a week between them and with the financial fair play system taking place, Dougie is in a difficult predicament.

Honestly my main problem with this team dating back to the megson days (i know, different players) has been the complete and utter lack of quality and ability to pass the ball.

why is it whoever we bring into this club seems to completely loose all ability and composure.

have you seen this team connect on four or five passes that aren't backwards in the last, god, 7 years? I honestly can't remember a game where I've thought. "You know what, we passed it well today" and i mean under Megson, Coyle and Dougie.

look at Blackburn today, you would never say they had a squad of "top quality players" but they were still able to get the ball down, get their wingers involved, overlapping runs, clever movement up front.

I watched more composed play in the scottish third division last year. I just don't know what it is with this club and these players, it's like the life is drained out of them when they arrive.

Michael Bolton wrote:1

Natasha Whittam wrote:Tierney
Baptiste
Hall
Craig Davies
Medo

All players signed by Dougie, all absolute shite.

Coyle can still take some of the blame, but at some point people are going to have to accept Freedman couldn't spot a good player at a Barcelona player auction.

But you said Baptiste was a really good signing when we got him. You vagina.

Did you not know Mike that Nat does a good impersonation of the town hall clock with all them faces?

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Honestly my main problem with this team dating back to the megson days (i know, different players) has been the complete and utter lack of quality and ability to pass the ball.

why is it whoever we bring into this club seems to completely loose all ability and composure.

have you seen this team connect on four or five passes that aren't backwards in the last, god, 7 years? I honestly can't remember a game where I've thought. "You know what, we passed it well today" and i mean under Megson, Coyle and Dougie.

look at Blackburn today, you would never say they had a squad of "top quality players" but they were still able to get the ball down, get their wingers involved, overlapping runs, clever movement up front.

I watched more composed play in the scottish third division last year. I just don't know what it is with this club and these players, it's like the life is drained out of them when they arrive.

That's a top post, who hijacked your username?

I'm trying to think of a game in recent years where we actually passed the ball - the only one I can think of is at Wolves a couple of years ago when we won 3-2 and Elmander scored that fabulous goal.

You're right though, it's as if players lose the ability to pass the ball as soon as they pull on the white shirt.

Barryjw wrote:Well we haven't won a league game since Dawson went back to WBA probably says it all.

Duh... he sits on the WBA bench and we are in freefall since he left.  Someone wake up out there.

Cracking post Hipster. The last time I saw a good piece of play with more than 3 passes which lead to a goal was the equaliser against blackpool at home under coyle to get it back to 2-2.

We played a lot of nice stuff when the likes of Hierro, Campo, Djorkaeff, Okocha were about but since then we've been lumping it up to Kevin Davies under the Megson and Coyle era's and we based our game solely on that and still haven't got rid of the players to do something different.

At the moment any boot away from our 'defenders' will do - and tbh it doesn't look like Knight, Wheater, etc are capable of anything better.

Maybe Moritz and Medo might start to find a passing game but for now the likes of Lee, Eagles, Ngog and Hall seem to much prefer running with the ball than passing it about.

Anyway until we plug the hole at the back most of our players will be shoring up the defence and hardly venturing over the half way line!