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Fred Barber believes Adam Bogdan would never have achieved his Premier League dream move to Liverpool had he not laid down the law to him as a young player.
Following in the footsteps of Jussi Jaaskelainen and Ali Al-Habsi, the Hungarian had plenty of rough edges to remove before Wanderers could make him their number-one choice.
After three-and-a-half seasons as top dog, Bogdan moves to Anfield to prove himself all over again – but speaking to The Bolton News, renowned goalkeeping coach Barber revealed he had to put the stops on the youngster going to college twice a week in order to make him concentrate on training.
“We had to get through a lot of hard work with Adam in the early days. It was like trying to train a wild horse,” he said.
“I’d said to Sammy Lee we’d got a goalkeeper with a bit of promise and that he needed to take a look at him. We’d evaluated him, and off the top of my head I think his club in Hungary were asking £200,000.
“But it was only once he’d signed his contract that the hard work started.
“Getting him to do things the way I wanted to do them was tough. If you don’t do it my way, it’s the highway, and Jussi and Ali used to laugh because they’d been through the same sort of thing.
“Sometimes players can come in and think football is the same all over the world; it isn’t.
“Adam came in and said he wanted to go to college in the afternoons. I told him it wasn’t going to happen.
“You’ve got to give everything to football if you’re going to be a top player, you need to forfeit. I think Adam will look back now and maybe realise what we were trying to do.”
“He’d do things like turn up at training with a headband on. He’d say it was to keep his hair out of his eyes but I’d tell him to go and get a flipping haircut.”
Barber makes no apologies for dishing out some tough love – and points to his record in 17 years at Wanderers as proof he was doing something right.
“I think I saved the club a few bob,” he laughed. “Jussi in his prime was worth, what, £6million? They got £4.5m for Ali and then Adam on top of that – plus I’m glad to see the likes of Jay Lynch and Rob Lainton have league experience now, they’re doing well.
“People say times change, football changes, but I’ve always got results with goalkeepers I’ve worked with.
“Jussi would not only train, he’d listen, try to dissect things. Adam was a bit different in that he’d question what you were doing.
“Every once in a while you’d get one of them throw their toys out of the pram, especially when we looked at their kicking, which was something they all had to improve when they first came to the club.
“But they always came round to my way of thinking in the end.”
Barber also revealed some of the goalkeepers who could have joined Jaaskelainen, Al-Habsi and Bogdan at Wanderers.
“I was part-time at Bolton and also working with West Brom when we found Tomasz Kuszczak, and everyone was chasing him,” he said.
“His agent took him down there and Gary Megson got the deal done. A few years later he’s worth millions and going to Manchester United.
“It was the same for Lukasz Fabianski and Wojciech Szczesny, who were only young boys at the time and would have cost £50,000-£100,000 (Fabianski later signed for Arsenal from Legia Warsaw for £2.1m).
“Kelle Roos was another lad we turned up and recommended to Bolton but he ended up at Derby as their number two.”
Barber believes Bogdan will have to be patient next season before he gets a chance at Liverpool, as Brendan Rodgers’ current number one Simon Mignolet looks to have rid himself of the poor form that plagued him in the first half of last season.
“Adam had a great game at Liverpool in the FA Cup and that might have been the one that got him the move,” he said.
“I know he had a few injuries last season but I saw him against Bournemouth on the television at the end of last season and he played well.
“When you’ve spent £9million or £10million on a goalkeeper I suppose you have to be patient and I doubt Adam will be able to go in there and start shouting the odds.
“Mignolet went through a bit of a sticky patch last season but looks like he’s come through it now.”
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Following in the footsteps of Jussi Jaaskelainen and Ali Al-Habsi, the Hungarian had plenty of rough edges to remove before Wanderers could make him their number-one choice.
After three-and-a-half seasons as top dog, Bogdan moves to Anfield to prove himself all over again – but speaking to The Bolton News, renowned goalkeeping coach Barber revealed he had to put the stops on the youngster going to college twice a week in order to make him concentrate on training.
“We had to get through a lot of hard work with Adam in the early days. It was like trying to train a wild horse,” he said.
“I’d said to Sammy Lee we’d got a goalkeeper with a bit of promise and that he needed to take a look at him. We’d evaluated him, and off the top of my head I think his club in Hungary were asking £200,000.
“But it was only once he’d signed his contract that the hard work started.
“Getting him to do things the way I wanted to do them was tough. If you don’t do it my way, it’s the highway, and Jussi and Ali used to laugh because they’d been through the same sort of thing.
“Sometimes players can come in and think football is the same all over the world; it isn’t.
“Adam came in and said he wanted to go to college in the afternoons. I told him it wasn’t going to happen.
“You’ve got to give everything to football if you’re going to be a top player, you need to forfeit. I think Adam will look back now and maybe realise what we were trying to do.”
“He’d do things like turn up at training with a headband on. He’d say it was to keep his hair out of his eyes but I’d tell him to go and get a flipping haircut.”
Barber makes no apologies for dishing out some tough love – and points to his record in 17 years at Wanderers as proof he was doing something right.
“I think I saved the club a few bob,” he laughed. “Jussi in his prime was worth, what, £6million? They got £4.5m for Ali and then Adam on top of that – plus I’m glad to see the likes of Jay Lynch and Rob Lainton have league experience now, they’re doing well.
“People say times change, football changes, but I’ve always got results with goalkeepers I’ve worked with.
“Jussi would not only train, he’d listen, try to dissect things. Adam was a bit different in that he’d question what you were doing.
“Every once in a while you’d get one of them throw their toys out of the pram, especially when we looked at their kicking, which was something they all had to improve when they first came to the club.
“But they always came round to my way of thinking in the end.”
Barber also revealed some of the goalkeepers who could have joined Jaaskelainen, Al-Habsi and Bogdan at Wanderers.
“I was part-time at Bolton and also working with West Brom when we found Tomasz Kuszczak, and everyone was chasing him,” he said.
“His agent took him down there and Gary Megson got the deal done. A few years later he’s worth millions and going to Manchester United.
“It was the same for Lukasz Fabianski and Wojciech Szczesny, who were only young boys at the time and would have cost £50,000-£100,000 (Fabianski later signed for Arsenal from Legia Warsaw for £2.1m).
“Kelle Roos was another lad we turned up and recommended to Bolton but he ended up at Derby as their number two.”
Barber believes Bogdan will have to be patient next season before he gets a chance at Liverpool, as Brendan Rodgers’ current number one Simon Mignolet looks to have rid himself of the poor form that plagued him in the first half of last season.
“Adam had a great game at Liverpool in the FA Cup and that might have been the one that got him the move,” he said.
“I know he had a few injuries last season but I saw him against Bournemouth on the television at the end of last season and he played well.
“When you’ve spent £9million or £10million on a goalkeeper I suppose you have to be patient and I doubt Adam will be able to go in there and start shouting the odds.
“Mignolet went through a bit of a sticky patch last season but looks like he’s come through it now.”
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