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Its’ sinister twists and turns more in synch with a soap opera, life at Wanderers in 2015 has been nothing if not eventful.
Even the most warped scriptwriters would struggle to come up with a plot quite like the one we have witnessed unfold before our very eyes at the Macron Stadium in the last 12 months.
From the unbridled joys of FA Cup victory over Wigan Athletic and a swashbuckling draw against Liverpool at Anfield, Wanderers’ stock has fallen to the extent that – in the worst case scenario – they could be wound up completely in just 18 days’ time.
That is the stark deadline facing the club as an unpaid tax bill awaits at the High Court, the pinnacle of what has become the single biggest financial crisis this grand old club has ever seen.
Though Wanderers have experienced hard times before the sheer scale and size of the numbers involved right now mean this is not, as has been the case in the past, just a matter of tightening belts, selling assets or asking for fans to dig deep.
In 13 years of being the majority stakeholder Eddie Davies’s money has taken his hometown club to heights in the Premier League they could hardly have considered. Yet it is also on his watch that the current catastrophe has unfolded so publicly in the last 12 months, where matters off the field have taken precedence, even to the failures on it.
The Isle of Man businessman, Farnworth born and bred, went into 2015 looking to sell the club, entrusting his long-time ally Phil Gartside to conduct negotiations. He had signalled his intention to remove his funding up to six months earlier, prompting the club to make note in their annual accounts, yet the forward planning – or lack of – has been one of the real eye-openers of this whole affair.
Interested bidders came and went – Thai, Irish, Middle Eastern – but Wanderers finished the year no closer to finding a new owner and with serious questions being asked about the hierarchal structure that Davies had entrusted to keep the club ticking over.
Since being relegated from the Premier League in 2012 great play had been made of the sacrifices made, job cuts, wage bill slashed, although the more detail that emerges in the sorry situation, the more it seems not enough of a sacrifice was made.
Gartside is now gravely ill, stepped down from his post, and unable to explain his side of the story. The remaining board members – not until this point in time real movers or shakers – are now desperately trying to pick up the pieces of one disaster after another.
Football’s Mr Fix It Trevor Birch was appointed in late November to try and sort out the mess. Even a man who helped stabilise the likes of Leeds United and Portsmouth has been taken aback by the lack of ready cash – forcing the sale or lease of hotels and offices at the Macron and potentially the training ground at Euxton.
This was also the year that Wanderers academy was downgraded from Category One – perhaps the first concession of the problems to come. Ironically it came soon after one of its most impressive prospects, Zach Clough, announced himself on the grand stage.
Most Wanderers fans had seen something of Clough before and his scoring record at youth team level had people clamouring for him to get a push long before he appeared in the FA Cup against Wigan back in January.
Dougie Freedman had memorably said he “wasn’t ready” and when the Denton teenager took the field that afternoon I had to check twice to see that the ball boy hadn’t wandered on to the pitch.
Within minutes a star was born. This kid played like he didn’t have a care in the world and technically he was above anything we had seen all season.
Within a couple of weeks he had scored another two goals against Wolves, adding nonchalantly after the final whistle: “I’ve been popping in goals since I was eight years old, I’ve worked hard for this moment.”
Wanderers had channelled the spirit of 1993 to earn a replay in the FA Cup against Liverpool at Anfield with what proved a tactically-perfect performance.
They fared well in the replay too – Eidur Gudjohnsen’s penalty putting them ahead until Raheem Sterling equalised four minutes from time. When Neil Danns earned an even later red card, Phillipe Coutinho’s sensational injury time winner left the Whites completely deflated.
The knock on effect from that result would be felt for many months to come.
Lennon brought in a raft of loan signings to give him cover, ranging from the great, Adam Le Fondre, and the inconsistent, Saidy Janko, to the unfortunate, Simeon Slavchev, and the unfathomable, Rochinha.
Results were wildly inconsistent but a run of one defeat in six between March and April ensured the Whites did not dip back into the bottom three.
Lennon’s team limped over the line in the end, unable to cope with a horrendous list of injuries which included Clough, David Wheater and Kevin McNaughton sidelined in a single game against Reading.
Summer signings were done on a shoestring and appeared from far and wide: Gary Madine, Stephen Dobbie, Ben Amos, Derik Osede, Jose Casado, Lawrie Wilson, Francesco Pisano, Prince-Desire Gouano and Paul Rachubka.
Heading the other way were big earners such as Alex Baptiste, Matt Mills, Andy Lonergan and Craig Davies. Adam Bogdan made a dream move to Liverpool – the team he had denied so heroically back in January – while Eidur Gudjohnsen saw a contract offer vanish over the summer forcing him to seek a move to China.
It took until mid-September for Wanderers to secure their first win, against Wolves, and another three-month wait until the next.
Players were not paid in November and paid only a percentage of their December salary. Non playing staff faced the prospect of not getting a Christmas wage until a late scramble enabled a payment and meant fans’ kind-hearted whip rounds were not needed in the end.
Just as every shocking revelation seemed to have been covered at Bolton, along came another unwanted set of headlines in December.
After the 2-2 draw with Fulham just before Christmas, manager Lennon was asked for his thoughts on the year drawing to an end, remarking: “I’ll be glad to see the back of it.
The following morning his face was plastered over a Sunday tabloid with sordid allegations about his private life, forcing the club to launch an inquiry.
All of a sudden the man whose persona and popularity had been one of the main assets in times of difficult had found his reputation quickly tarnished.
The investigation lasted just 48 hours and though the manager was warned strongly about his future behaviour the club appeared to stand by him in a brief statement made before the Boxing Day clash with Rotherham.
Just a few days later that stance had shifted. A desperate defeat at the New York Stadium had the club re-examining their decision. Lennon’s job was again under considerable threat, and given his side had won just one game in 23, it was little wonder.
As all hope looked lost, Gary Madine produced a moment of magic in the televised Lancashire derby to beat Blackburn and the manager heads into the New Year with some good news on which to cling.
And it is at that stage we enter into 2016. If it could go wrong, it has gone wrong at Wanderers and yet there is still hope it could all pan out fine in the end.
Change is in the air as we enter into the New Year. Let’s hope it is for the better.
Source
Even the most warped scriptwriters would struggle to come up with a plot quite like the one we have witnessed unfold before our very eyes at the Macron Stadium in the last 12 months.
From the unbridled joys of FA Cup victory over Wigan Athletic and a swashbuckling draw against Liverpool at Anfield, Wanderers’ stock has fallen to the extent that – in the worst case scenario – they could be wound up completely in just 18 days’ time.
That is the stark deadline facing the club as an unpaid tax bill awaits at the High Court, the pinnacle of what has become the single biggest financial crisis this grand old club has ever seen.
Though Wanderers have experienced hard times before the sheer scale and size of the numbers involved right now mean this is not, as has been the case in the past, just a matter of tightening belts, selling assets or asking for fans to dig deep.
In 13 years of being the majority stakeholder Eddie Davies’s money has taken his hometown club to heights in the Premier League they could hardly have considered. Yet it is also on his watch that the current catastrophe has unfolded so publicly in the last 12 months, where matters off the field have taken precedence, even to the failures on it.
The Isle of Man businessman, Farnworth born and bred, went into 2015 looking to sell the club, entrusting his long-time ally Phil Gartside to conduct negotiations. He had signalled his intention to remove his funding up to six months earlier, prompting the club to make note in their annual accounts, yet the forward planning – or lack of – has been one of the real eye-openers of this whole affair.
Interested bidders came and went – Thai, Irish, Middle Eastern – but Wanderers finished the year no closer to finding a new owner and with serious questions being asked about the hierarchal structure that Davies had entrusted to keep the club ticking over.
Since being relegated from the Premier League in 2012 great play had been made of the sacrifices made, job cuts, wage bill slashed, although the more detail that emerges in the sorry situation, the more it seems not enough of a sacrifice was made.
Gartside is now gravely ill, stepped down from his post, and unable to explain his side of the story. The remaining board members – not until this point in time real movers or shakers – are now desperately trying to pick up the pieces of one disaster after another.
Football’s Mr Fix It Trevor Birch was appointed in late November to try and sort out the mess. Even a man who helped stabilise the likes of Leeds United and Portsmouth has been taken aback by the lack of ready cash – forcing the sale or lease of hotels and offices at the Macron and potentially the training ground at Euxton.
This was also the year that Wanderers academy was downgraded from Category One – perhaps the first concession of the problems to come. Ironically it came soon after one of its most impressive prospects, Zach Clough, announced himself on the grand stage.
Most Wanderers fans had seen something of Clough before and his scoring record at youth team level had people clamouring for him to get a push long before he appeared in the FA Cup against Wigan back in January.
Dougie Freedman had memorably said he “wasn’t ready” and when the Denton teenager took the field that afternoon I had to check twice to see that the ball boy hadn’t wandered on to the pitch.
Within minutes a star was born. This kid played like he didn’t have a care in the world and technically he was above anything we had seen all season.
Within a couple of weeks he had scored another two goals against Wolves, adding nonchalantly after the final whistle: “I’ve been popping in goals since I was eight years old, I’ve worked hard for this moment.”
Wanderers had channelled the spirit of 1993 to earn a replay in the FA Cup against Liverpool at Anfield with what proved a tactically-perfect performance.
They fared well in the replay too – Eidur Gudjohnsen’s penalty putting them ahead until Raheem Sterling equalised four minutes from time. When Neil Danns earned an even later red card, Phillipe Coutinho’s sensational injury time winner left the Whites completely deflated.
The knock on effect from that result would be felt for many months to come.
Lennon brought in a raft of loan signings to give him cover, ranging from the great, Adam Le Fondre, and the inconsistent, Saidy Janko, to the unfortunate, Simeon Slavchev, and the unfathomable, Rochinha.
Results were wildly inconsistent but a run of one defeat in six between March and April ensured the Whites did not dip back into the bottom three.
Lennon’s team limped over the line in the end, unable to cope with a horrendous list of injuries which included Clough, David Wheater and Kevin McNaughton sidelined in a single game against Reading.
Summer signings were done on a shoestring and appeared from far and wide: Gary Madine, Stephen Dobbie, Ben Amos, Derik Osede, Jose Casado, Lawrie Wilson, Francesco Pisano, Prince-Desire Gouano and Paul Rachubka.
Heading the other way were big earners such as Alex Baptiste, Matt Mills, Andy Lonergan and Craig Davies. Adam Bogdan made a dream move to Liverpool – the team he had denied so heroically back in January – while Eidur Gudjohnsen saw a contract offer vanish over the summer forcing him to seek a move to China.
It took until mid-September for Wanderers to secure their first win, against Wolves, and another three-month wait until the next.
Players were not paid in November and paid only a percentage of their December salary. Non playing staff faced the prospect of not getting a Christmas wage until a late scramble enabled a payment and meant fans’ kind-hearted whip rounds were not needed in the end.
Just as every shocking revelation seemed to have been covered at Bolton, along came another unwanted set of headlines in December.
After the 2-2 draw with Fulham just before Christmas, manager Lennon was asked for his thoughts on the year drawing to an end, remarking: “I’ll be glad to see the back of it.
The following morning his face was plastered over a Sunday tabloid with sordid allegations about his private life, forcing the club to launch an inquiry.
All of a sudden the man whose persona and popularity had been one of the main assets in times of difficult had found his reputation quickly tarnished.
The investigation lasted just 48 hours and though the manager was warned strongly about his future behaviour the club appeared to stand by him in a brief statement made before the Boxing Day clash with Rotherham.
Just a few days later that stance had shifted. A desperate defeat at the New York Stadium had the club re-examining their decision. Lennon’s job was again under considerable threat, and given his side had won just one game in 23, it was little wonder.
As all hope looked lost, Gary Madine produced a moment of magic in the televised Lancashire derby to beat Blackburn and the manager heads into the New Year with some good news on which to cling.
And it is at that stage we enter into 2016. If it could go wrong, it has gone wrong at Wanderers and yet there is still hope it could all pan out fine in the end.
Change is in the air as we enter into the New Year. Let’s hope it is for the better.
Source