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Lots of Wanderers fans have asked me who my ideal choice would be for the next manager – and they are often left puzzled when I say it doesn’t really bother me.
Of course, I want someone who is able to bring success to the club next season, that much is a given, but the truth is that whoever walks through the door will be stuck with me, just as I will with him.
There are times in a local reporter’s week when you speak with a manager more than you do your own wife and kids. And that can be a blessing and a curse.
It is a great honour to follow the team up and down the country and get paid for it but striking a balance between asking difficult questions – especially during the tough times – and keeping that relationship going is not an easy one, let me tell you.
Not counting interim bosses or caretakers, the next man will be the fifth Wanderers manager in the time I have covered the club as chief football writer.
I had the pleasure of helping out in the days of Sam Allardyce, and filled-in during Sammy Lee’s short reign at press conferences where the rest of the North West media went walkabouts. Still, I saw the positives.
It was only when Gary Megson took charge I really got my feet under the table with a Bolton boss… or as near as damn it.
I still maintain if fans could have sampled more of the down-to-earth banter the Ginger Mourinho showed away from the TV cameras and tape recorders, he would have had a much smoother ride with Wanderers.
We had our moments. I remember him taking umbrage with an opposition journalist piece I did with the Blackburn Rovers programme on the eve of the derby. They entitled the piece “Spy in the Camp” and he was not impressed.
Thankfully, he had other things to occupy his mind that night, not least having a pop at the fans who were giving him a hard time from the stands. The famous “pathetic” quote was the beginning of the end for him.
Owen Coyle was a very different persona. He didn’t need a PR man, said the right things and when things were going well, it was effortless writing about the team at the time. When things did not go well, he took the criticism to heart and I felt my own relationship with him suffered.
I hope he gets a chance to re-invent himself after coming back from Houston Dynamo because he definitely has something to offer the right club. I think he will have to take a leaf out of Phil Brown’s book, however, and start in League Two with a club who have ambitions to go higher.
Dougie Freedman’s name can still raise a scowl on certain faces, not least among the Bolton supporters. He presided over a particularly unhappy spell in the club’s history in which a lot of good people left. Did he deserve the stick he got? Some, but not all.
Though derided by fans, Freedman was great to work with from a personal point of view. Unfortunately, it got to the stage where regardless of how much sense he spoke, fans didn’t want to listen. And as someone who printed virtually every word, it became a very challenging time professionally.
I still think back to the haunted look he had on the touchline after his final game, a 4-0 defeat at Fulham and wonder why managers do this to themselves?
Neil Lennon was quite cautious when he came into the Macron, stand-offish, even. His experience of the ravenous Glaswegian press may have made him a little more circumspect than he should have been in his early days here but, suffice to say, he quickly warmed up.
He made mistakes he probably regrets during his time in charge – and I think he will learn from them and be a much better manager further down the line. But as an example of fronting up under pressure, he was exemplary. Lenny answered questions that would make Jeremy Paxman wince. In that sense I was sad to see him go because if he’d have been that good to work with in the bad times, imagine what it would have been like in the better ones?
So what type of manager do I want? Well, someone with Megson’s old-school ways, Coyle’s charm, Freedman’s intelligence and Lennon’s guts under pressure would do me just fine. But I think Sir Alex Ferguson is busy right now.
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Of course, I want someone who is able to bring success to the club next season, that much is a given, but the truth is that whoever walks through the door will be stuck with me, just as I will with him.
There are times in a local reporter’s week when you speak with a manager more than you do your own wife and kids. And that can be a blessing and a curse.
It is a great honour to follow the team up and down the country and get paid for it but striking a balance between asking difficult questions – especially during the tough times – and keeping that relationship going is not an easy one, let me tell you.
Not counting interim bosses or caretakers, the next man will be the fifth Wanderers manager in the time I have covered the club as chief football writer.
I had the pleasure of helping out in the days of Sam Allardyce, and filled-in during Sammy Lee’s short reign at press conferences where the rest of the North West media went walkabouts. Still, I saw the positives.
It was only when Gary Megson took charge I really got my feet under the table with a Bolton boss… or as near as damn it.
I still maintain if fans could have sampled more of the down-to-earth banter the Ginger Mourinho showed away from the TV cameras and tape recorders, he would have had a much smoother ride with Wanderers.
We had our moments. I remember him taking umbrage with an opposition journalist piece I did with the Blackburn Rovers programme on the eve of the derby. They entitled the piece “Spy in the Camp” and he was not impressed.
Thankfully, he had other things to occupy his mind that night, not least having a pop at the fans who were giving him a hard time from the stands. The famous “pathetic” quote was the beginning of the end for him.
Owen Coyle was a very different persona. He didn’t need a PR man, said the right things and when things were going well, it was effortless writing about the team at the time. When things did not go well, he took the criticism to heart and I felt my own relationship with him suffered.
I hope he gets a chance to re-invent himself after coming back from Houston Dynamo because he definitely has something to offer the right club. I think he will have to take a leaf out of Phil Brown’s book, however, and start in League Two with a club who have ambitions to go higher.
Dougie Freedman’s name can still raise a scowl on certain faces, not least among the Bolton supporters. He presided over a particularly unhappy spell in the club’s history in which a lot of good people left. Did he deserve the stick he got? Some, but not all.
Though derided by fans, Freedman was great to work with from a personal point of view. Unfortunately, it got to the stage where regardless of how much sense he spoke, fans didn’t want to listen. And as someone who printed virtually every word, it became a very challenging time professionally.
I still think back to the haunted look he had on the touchline after his final game, a 4-0 defeat at Fulham and wonder why managers do this to themselves?
Neil Lennon was quite cautious when he came into the Macron, stand-offish, even. His experience of the ravenous Glaswegian press may have made him a little more circumspect than he should have been in his early days here but, suffice to say, he quickly warmed up.
He made mistakes he probably regrets during his time in charge – and I think he will learn from them and be a much better manager further down the line. But as an example of fronting up under pressure, he was exemplary. Lenny answered questions that would make Jeremy Paxman wince. In that sense I was sad to see him go because if he’d have been that good to work with in the bad times, imagine what it would have been like in the better ones?
So what type of manager do I want? Well, someone with Megson’s old-school ways, Coyle’s charm, Freedman’s intelligence and Lennon’s guts under pressure would do me just fine. But I think Sir Alex Ferguson is busy right now.
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