Gartsides thoughts on the new season Part 2 NEW

Bolton we have got rid of 90% of the shit just zat im hanging around like a bad smell to hopefully get rid off.CYL is contracted to 2015 its been revealed today so looks like he will be staying.Holden will be staying.Sordell to come and greg Wylde to come thats like 4 new signings.Ryo Myachi to come back.A pick of a chelsea loanee part of Cahill contract.We need a quality Centre Half.Now NRC has gone £40k a week in wages freed up.Squad so far Goalkeepers.Bogdan,Lainton,Lynch.Right Backs.Riley,Mears.Centre Half Ream(TBA)Left Back.Ricketts,Alonso.Midfield central Mark Davies,Holden,Vela,Pratley.Right wing Chung yong Lee,Myachi,Eagles.Left wing Petrov,Wylde.Centre forward N,gog,Sordell Kev Davies.Thats 20 players so far.Cover in each position apart from Centre Half.Early Days.As for Blackburn VVVenkys thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Interesting interview. I agree there's nothing wrong with loan signings if they can add value, but it seems weird that we are apparently going for prem players. There seems to be a discrepancy between this business about cutting our wage bill by up to 50% and then coughing up prem wages.

I know I bang on about it but we have to sort out the defence and if that's done by bringing in second choice prem players it seems a very short term approach. I'd have thought that money would have been better spent on buying younger big quick players from either the lower leagues or abroad so they can grow with the team and benefit from the experience of Ricketts and Wheater when he eventually returns. But I'm not the manager.

Part 2

Phil, a lot always gets made as regards the £100million debt the club has to our owner, and no more so than the end of last season.

"It does. We always hear about it and a lot gets written about what a burden it is and what impact it will have.

"Well we have a debt, yes, and it is to Eddie, but our bank debt is only £10 million which in football terms is nothing really.

"With Eddie you could call it an investment, a soft debt, in that it is what he has spent over the past 11 years funding us in the Premier League.

"We have been very fortunate to have had that backing and investment, so yes a debt, but a soft debt.

"It makes you realise how hugely important Eddie's backing is and what it has allowed us to do.

"He wants to continue backing us, which is great news for the football club."

How are we as regards the other key areas, such as kit, shirt sponsor and, of course, the stadium naming rights? That's something a lot of fans have been asking about - will it still be the Reebok Stadium next season?

"Well we have entered into a new kit deal with adidas and that's for four years.

"It made sense as they are without doubt one of the world's leading football sports brands.

"We also made a bit of footballing history as we moved on from our 22-year kit partnership with Reebok.

"To be fair, Reebok have been superb partners and we worked well together, but they were looking to focus more on fitness and other products and markets.

"That means the new kit will be available in the summer and the superstore will be having a makeover to tie in with the launch of the new training gear.

"The stadium naming rights don't change - we have a deal with Reebok right through until 2016.

"We have an excellent relationship with 188BET and so we are pretty secure there too."

So we are pretty much on track for next season, any final thoughts?

"I wish the season started tomorrow!

"We have a great club, great support and a good young manager who, as he says himself, has learned a lot from this season and will carry on learning.

"We have a young squad with lads coming through from the academy and we want more local players to make that step.

"We have had great support and, to pinch something Owen said, we want to give the fans something to smile about, and I count myself in that too."

Phil, thanks for your time.

"Pleasure."

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

He can call it a 'soft debt' all he wants but it still needs to be paid back.

Lets hope the club have made provision for the debt, should Mr Davies be a victim of the big red bus

Cracking chairman.

didn't hear any complaints about him when we were in Europe.

Everyone has to get it right sooner or later I suppose

I can't buy in to Gartside's optimism about Coyle's ability to learn. He's been a football manager since 2003, which is coming up to 10 years, so he can't really be clad in the 'good young manager' armour any longer. For example, Brendan Rodgers started in management at the end of 2008 and he's just landed the Liverpool job. Paul Lambert's managerial career began in 2005 and he's set for Villa.

Some of Coyle's decisions last season were baffling and some smacked of desperation e.g. milking the 'Muamba factor' for all it was worth and throwing on Chung when he was nowhere near ready in a crunch game. The refusal to use certain players is well documented. Being stubborn does not equate with ability to learn imo.

I see Coyle as a little kid who's wandered into the big boy's playground and managed to stick around for while despite the short pants but eventually will be given a good slap and sent back to the juniors.

Nice comments, exactly in line with my own thoughts.

No complaints with the interviews really, I wasn't exactly surprised with any of the things he came out with as most of it we knew already.

No doubt some will have a go at him over something but were they really expecting him to come out and have a go at coyle in public?

I totally disagree he "milked" anything in regards to Muamba.

But the bringing chungy back in the way he did was baffling, agree with that.

At the moment Phil Gartside is correct if he calls it a soft debt as he might not ask for it to be paid back. No doubt there are clauses inserted into the debt agreement on the conditions that attach to the debt. But it's still interest bearing and that costs the club money each year in servicing the debt.

The real problem comes with the next generation of the Davies family- who might have no allegiance to or interest in the Wanderers.

It'll be part of Eddy's estate when he does eventually turn his toes up- and the next generation might just crystallise the debt and ask for repayment of it..Unless he's set it up so that the debt expires when he does, or he has the debt written cleverly in trust so that it's protected in some other way.

Both Abramovitch and Jack Walker at Chelsea and Blackburn lent their clubs substantial amounts of money- which they subsequently converted to equity -thus removing both the need for interest payments and also repayment of the debt, making their clubs much more financially secure. It also changed their borrowing capacity dramatically if they wanted to borrow money from other sources.

The best thing that can happen is for this 'soft' debt to be made even softer by a conversion to equity- and that would make our Accounts look dramatically better. Let's hope that Eddy does this as we would be in a really strong financial position if he chose to do so. And the sooner the better. However that would mean him losing substantial interest payments- and having lent the club millions I wouldn't begrudge him the interest on his loans.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:I totally disagree he "milked" anything in regards to Muamba.

But the bringing chungy back in the way he did was baffling, agree with that.

OK maybe that was a bit harsh on the guy tbf.

rammywhite wrote: Both Abramovitch and Jack Walker at Chelsea and Blackburn lent their clubs substantial amounts of money- which they subsequently converted to equity -thus removing both the need for interest payments and also repayment of the debt, making their clubs much more financially secure. It also changed their borrowing capacity dramatically if they wanted to borrow money from other sources.

In case he's still pondering this, shouldn't we be making it "The Eddie Davies Arena" asap.

I'd have no problem with that- after what he's done for the club It can be no worse than the 'Reebok'.

The problem though was Balckburn- after Jack Walkers incredible dedication and investment in the club.

Sold out to a bunch of battery hen operators who don't come near the place and summon their manager for meetings about 5000 miles away.

That's about as bad as you can get.

Eddie receives £5m in interest payments from the club every year.

His family might consider that a decent income rather than demand it back from a debtor who doesn't have it.

rammywhite wrote:

The real problem comes with the next generation of the Davies family- who might have no allegiance to or interest in the Wanderers.

Eddie Davies has a son and daughter who both still live in Bolton but by all accounts are not interested in football. Let's just hope Eddie lives to a ripe old age. He charges 10% interest on his loans to us and as long as the loans are paid the status quo will remain.

Where have you got this 10% figure from? I heard it was 5% from a shareholder.

If it's 10% -I've got a few bob they can borrow!!That would be extortionate. Even 5% on a loan with no real security behind it is generous.

10% is far too high, but there again, its monetary deals like this that have got many clubs in the situation they are in, i.e. bankrupt. It seems that many acts of wheeling and dealing in football is the norm, rather than up front, honest, transactions.