In Perspective

Like many Bolton fans, I have become a little apathetic about our season at this stage. We will not be going up and we are almost certainly not going down. There have been grim moments this season such as the 7-1 hiding received at the hands of Reading and games that provided a glimmer of hope and signs of life - such as the 4-0  thumping of Blackburn followed up with the 5-1 walloping of Leeds a week later.

There have been some interesting team selections made by our erudite manager Mr. Freedman. Chris Eagles seems to have played his last game for the club although he refused the opportunity to go on loan. This sounds remarkably like the situation with Tyrone Mears (who?) who has not figured for the club in a month of Sundays and similarly refused the opportunity to go on loan. Both players were brought to the club by our former manager Mr. Coyle - who despite being the best manager he has ever been, is without employment at this time. In the words of a fellow fan, "Thanks, Owen".

There are encouraging signs coming from our younger teams. Our U18's have been doing good things and recording victories over teams from the Premiership - notably doing the double over Manchester United. The Reserves have a number of players who were promoted from the U18's of last year and some names to look out for in the hopefully near future, are Georg Iliev, Jamie Thomas, Chris Lester, Oskar Threlkeld and Zach Clough. These players along with the likes of Joe Riley, Hayden White & Cian Bolger can potentially form the basis of a good young team that may not set the Premiership alight in two years time, but will certainly help the club to have players who are committed to the cause and do not cost the proverbial arm and a leg.

There are, however, a number of things happening in the world around us that puts the fortunes of Bolton Wanderers into perspective - commercial planes going missing or crashing, wars, famine, hardships of every imaginable type. Us paying or armchair fans look forward to seeing our team turning out and putting in performances that reduce the stresses of our every day lives. While one would expect professional footballers to produce the type of play that their handsome salaries should prompt of them, I get the feeling that their own sense of well-being insulates them to an extent from the pressures of life faced by you and I. When a job is just a job, you don't lose a lot of sleep over how well it is done and how much better it could have been done.

This summer promises to be one of change. A number of players are out of contract and some are playing out of their skins in the hope of a new contract (I'm looking at you, Zat!) while others seem intent on bleeding the club of every last penny they can. A number of promising young players were sent on loan and should be returning with their sights firmly set on taking the place of some of these players that are expected to leave. Many fans, myself included, hope we can agree a deal with Middlesbrough for Lukas Jutkiewicz. It is remarkable how well he has fitted in since coming on loan and the player has expressed a desire to stay. With the returning players, out of contract players and those who are knocking on the door from the younger teams, Mr. Freedman has a lot of work to do to if he is to move the club forward in his second full season. It will not be easy, but it will be interesting.

A fair and balanced assessment I think. Hopefully we will have a busy and productive summer and pre-season and get off to a good start in August.

I appreciate the review, Nick!  

Good stuff Keegan, but it shouldn't be forgotten that only three months ago we were staring relegation in the face and didn't know where our next win was going to come from.
Since then we've stabilised the ship and have only lost one in the last 9 or 10.

Whilst it's good that we've stopped shipping too many stupid goals and have started to score a few ourselves we've done so on the back of loan players who we may or may not be able to afford to buy.
Even if we end up buying the loanees that have played a major part in turning our season around I'm not convinced we'd have a team that could seriously challenge for promotion.
We currently don't have the strength in depth as the Tierney injury saga has shown and so my view is that whilst Dougie has steadied the ship to save us from relegation, he needs to do a lot more to build on this during the summer. 
Worryingly he's said publicly that he doesn't expect a flurry of transfers in the summer - so I'm hoping he's just saying that to play the media game.

If the youngsters don't come through and Holden doesn't make it back to where he was, we definitely need signings in addition to tying up the better loanees we've had. And that means clearing out the dead wood first.
Dougie has a helluva lot of work to do.

True words, Wanderlust. The players that are released will determine to a great extent what Doug can do. What he actually will do is another matter!

Like all of us I hope there is a turnaround for next season.  Unfortuantely I have no evidence to support it at the moment.  Last season we had a late run and were installed as favorites to go up this season.  One season had nowt to do with the next.
Now we have another run of sorts going but I think deep down inside most of us realize there is somat missing.  We nicked 3 points on Saturday but they had 23+ shots, more corners and more possession ... and no disrepect but that's not Liverpool we were playing it's Huddersfield.  It's not a receipe for success over the course of a season.  I hope Doogie can prove us wrong next season but since he himself is main culprit I can't see how exactly.

Terence, one of the best posts I've read on any Wanderers forum for a long while and sums up how many of us lurkers are feeling! As great the feeling was on Sat to nick the win, most of us knew we were battered by a lower Championship side. I hope things are different next season.

JAH wrote:Terence, one of the best posts I've read on any Wanderers forum for a long while and sums up how many of us lurkers are feeling! As great the feeling was on Sat to nick the win, most of us knew we were battered by a lower Championship side. I hope things are different next season.

JAH,whilst we all hope things are going to get better,while the little jock tinkerer is in charge we are hurtling nowhere fast. I renewed my season ticket on sunday inspite of the little shit,I feel let down by myself that I havnt voted with my feet and wallet in not renewing whilst the little shit is still manager,however for good or bad the club is in my blood and having spent so many years not being able to go to matches,other than when I was back on hols or we made play offs etc etc I just cant  see myself not  going to matches whilst I am here ?? I hope against hope that the majority of us are wrong but not only on here but amongst fans home and away the vast concensus is that the little shit hasnt got a fucking clue !! and that means we are in for a lot more pain next season and beyond while he is in charge unfortunately !

Shot in the dark here, Tigermin - are you saying you don't rate our Dougie as a Manager?

terenceanne wrote:Like all of us I hope there is a turnaround for next season.  Unfortuantely I have no evidence to support it at the moment.  Last season we had a late run and were installed as favorites to go up this season.  One season had nowt to do with the next.
Now we have another run of sorts going but I think deep down inside most of us realize there is somat missing.  We nicked 3 points on Saturday but they had 23+ shots, more corners and more possession ... and no disrepect but that's not Liverpool we were playing it's Huddersfield.  It's not a receipe for success over the course of a season.  I hope Doogie can prove us wrong next season but since he himself is main culprit I can't see how exactly.

Absolutely - there's no link between one season and the next as shown when we were relegated and came down with a squad of supposed premiership quality players who couldn't hack it in the Championship. We'll be burdened with some of them for a few seasons to come - nobody would buy them - so there needs to be massive changes to the rest of the first team squad to give us any chance of progressing.

What bugs me is that the majority of us can see Dougie isn't the man. I can't think of any team ever getting promotion playing negative football. Remember the last time we won this division - we played attacking football and the object was simple: score more than the opposition. Just as Leicester have done this season.

The happy clappers seem to want to blame the debt, or the players signed by Coyle, or basically anything but the manager. But the fact remains that NOTHING has improved under Freedman. There is no youth, no decent football, no flair and no atmosphere.

We all know that we'll get rid of Dougie at some point next season, probably when the promotion ship has long sailed. So why not get shut now and give someone else the chance to mould this team ready for August.

Who might that someone be? Let's name names.

I can think of a few names.

Jiminiho and Sammy Lee, Obviously.

Phil Brown. 

Peter Reid 

someone who has recently been sacked for being an abject failure elsewhere if those aren't interested.

A guy next to me at Forest away was desperate to see Paul Jewel take over, bleak prospect.

Paul Jewel, God, he's been well off the radar for years now. Seem to remember him being on a few of Phil "The Power" Gartside's short lists back in the day.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:I can think of a few names.

Jiminiho and Sammy Lee, Obviously.

Phil Brown. 

Peter Reid 

someone who has recently been sacked for being an abject failure elsewhere if those aren't interested.

You are having a laugh! (aren't you?)

Natasha Whittam wrote:What bugs me is that the majority of us can see Dougie isn't the man. I

I don't think that's the point though. If I thought every woman I'd ever slept with was going to be "the one" I'd be in big trouble. I've never "used" a woman but sometimes there are situations of mutual advantage that you go into knowing full well it won't last for ever and this is one of those situations for BWFC. Dougie is tight-fisted and hard-nosed enough to stabilise our squad without breaking the bank and deserves the opportunity to prove it over the summer.
Whether he's the one we'd want to to mastermind an assault on the premiership title or oversee a run at European glory is another matter altogether, but for now I'm reasonably happy for him to do the necessary dirty work. 

He seems to have halted the inevitable slide into relegation that many on here predicted only a few months ago so let him have a shot at creating a competitive but affordable squad (if that's possible). Once the dirty work is done DF will have to start showing some tactical nous as there will be no excuses left - and that's the time to judge him. It will come soon enough, perhaps as early as 10 games into next season.

wanderlust wrote:
He seems to have halted the inevitable slide into relegation that many on here predicted only a few months ago so let him have a shot at creating a competitive but affordable squad (if that's possible). Once the dirty work is done DF will have to start showing some tactical nous as there will be no excuses left - and that's the time to judge him. It will come soon enough, perhaps as early as 10 games into next season.

Right, so after 18 months in the job it's fine with you that he hasn't used any tactical nous yet?

Is it possible he has none?

Going into this summer I'd say it's going to be essential to have a manager capable of finding quality at good value and blend some good youngsters in. It's undeniable that Dougie's done both so far, it's his tactics/selections that have been questionable, let him have the summer to invest in the squad and if he hasn't shown improvement after 10-15 games its obviously time to look elsewhere. Whoever comes in will have a better balanced, more economical squad to work with. Much like the situation Mclaren walked into at Derby he's pretty much doing it with Clough's squad.

bwfc1874 wrote: and blend some good youngsters in. It's undeniable that Dougie's done both so far

Do you honestly believe that?

He's given one game, one game, to a youngster this season.