For me, it's simple.
We are massively (and dangerously) in debt.
This year, under the new TV deal, the team which finishes bottom of the Prem gets over £60m in prize money. (Roughly a third of our debt.)
Despite all the re-structuring, re-financing, re-whatevering and other "bank speak", the BWFC Juggernaut is hurtling towards the precipice, with Gartside behind the wheel, fingers shoved firmly in his ears, shouting "Not listening ! Not listening...!" and if we're not careful, we're all going over the edge.
So what do we need to do?
Get back in the Prem as soon as possible, spend cock all and take the hand-outs on offer.
If we can scab a 17th place finish for 3 or 4 seasons, we will survive financially and get ourselves back into a position where we can think about re-building for the long-term.
The football will be dour shit, us fans will hate it and it will be a miserable period in Bolton's history.
But I really believe now that we've no choice.
And I finally now understand why Megson happened and what Gartside meant by "people who know football" and all that bollocks.
This was obviously the plan all along. Hang round the bottom third of the league indefinitely, waiting for the new TV deal and hope for the best.
And Megson fucked it up because he pissed the fans off with his attitude and comments and backed Gartside into a corner, wherein he had no alternative other than to sack him.
He then panicked and appointed Coyle, who then further compounded our problems by losing sight of the main objective, ie don't get fucking relegated, so Gartside really shit himself this time and gambled on Freedman, who he'd seen get Palace into a strong position without spending much cash.
Ideal on paper.
But 12 months on where are we?
Largely thanks to Dawson shoring up the defence and scoring some vital goals, we somehow managed to get to the brink of the play-offs, but then Dougie fucked this up by not going all out to batter Blackpool (who were there for the taking) at home.
We truly had nothing to lose in that game and the frustration inside the stadium was palpable by the end.
This season, the players are still trying to master Freedman's "containment football" and we look far from convincing.
We're into January, we're in 18th place and are currently averaging 0.88 points per game.
We are NOT going up this season.
The Freedman experiment is just the latest manifestation of Gartside's clueless leadership and it's time for change.
Stick Freedman on gardening leave (if we really can't afford to sack him), stick Lee and Phillips in charge (at no extra cost) and hope the players respond to the change positively and regain some confidence.
Take the rest of the season to do some proper home-work and find a manager capable of getting us back into the Prem at some point over the next couple of years without spending much money.
Someone experienced, who knows the basics and isn't another untried gamble.
Will this happen? Will it bollocks, because Gartside is too thick / arrogant to admit he's fucked it all up but it's what I believe we need to do.