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Phil Parkinson wants Wanderers to be ready to act quickly once their transfer embargo is lifted.
Co-owner Ken Anderson has promised the new manager restrictions placed on the club by the Football League and Financial Fair Play authorities at the end of last year will soon no longer be a prohibitive factor at the Macron Stadium.
It has been eight months since Wanderers’s last signing, that of former Newcastle United striker Shola Ameobi on a short-term deal last October.
But Parkinson has arrived at the club armed with plans for recruitment and believes the work done before players report back for pre-season on June 27 could be crucial to the club’s progress.
“There is a lot of work to be done,” he told The Bolton News. “The season will be made or it could be broken in the next few weeks depending on the players we can get in. It’s up to us to be as competitive as we can in the market.”
Inevitably, Parkinson will be linked with players from his former club Bradford City.
The rumour mill has already seized upon the name of Kyel Reid, the winger released by Preston North End last month who has spent two spells with the Whites boss at Bradford.
Parkinson recognises an imbalance in a squad which was decimated by financial problems and poor forward planning during the reign of his predecessor, Neil Lennon.
But he insists there are no immediate plans to plunder Valley Parade, with many of the players he left behind tied down by contracts and waiting to see if they are a part of the Bantams’ future under the next man in charge.
“There are players there who I have worked with but they are all under contract and there is no need for Bradford to sell anyone,” said the 48-year-old, who confirmed there had been no contractual agreement with his former club to avoid signing their talents.
“We will have to wait and see – the new man might have his own plans and that’s the way football works.
“Managers come in and like different players. Someone I admired they may not like, but we’ll wait and see what happens. There are some good players there.”
Wanderers’ squad will return over the next couple of weeks for fitness testing and meetings with the new manager before appearing en masse on June 27 for the official start of pre-season training.
Parkinson is eager to meet with the squad and assess what needs to be done to turn them into promotion contenders.
“We need to get cracking.,” he said. “I want to meet the players and they’ve had a long break. I want to get to know them.
“There are some good players in this squad and I want to do everything I can to get more out of them.”
Meanwhile, there may be a cautionary tale for Parkinson in the words of his predecessor Neil Lennon, who has opened up on his experience at Bolton shortly after being unveiled as the new manager at Hibs.
The former Celtic boss felt badly let down by his superiors under the previous ownership and believes his 15-month spell at the Macron has damaged his reputation in the game.
Speaking at the weekend after signing a two-year deal at Easter Road, Lennon reckons the club’s slide towards relegation under interim boss Jimmy Phillips in the weeks after his departure showed the ingrained problems which Parkinson will now have to solve.
“Of course [my record at Bolton worried me] because you get judged on results,” the Northern Irishman said.
“But there were a lot of mitigating circumstances, such as the assurances I got that were broken very, very early. That made the job incredibly hard.
“You always gauge a job when you leave and after I departed they lost their next eight games in a row, so you could see that even with a new manager coming in there was no bounce because there was just no financial support to take the club where I wanted to go.
“It’s a great club but it’s found itself in a really difficult position. But whether you see it as a bad experience or a good one, it will stand me in good stead for this new job.”
Source
Co-owner Ken Anderson has promised the new manager restrictions placed on the club by the Football League and Financial Fair Play authorities at the end of last year will soon no longer be a prohibitive factor at the Macron Stadium.
It has been eight months since Wanderers’s last signing, that of former Newcastle United striker Shola Ameobi on a short-term deal last October.
But Parkinson has arrived at the club armed with plans for recruitment and believes the work done before players report back for pre-season on June 27 could be crucial to the club’s progress.
“There is a lot of work to be done,” he told The Bolton News. “The season will be made or it could be broken in the next few weeks depending on the players we can get in. It’s up to us to be as competitive as we can in the market.”
Inevitably, Parkinson will be linked with players from his former club Bradford City.
The rumour mill has already seized upon the name of Kyel Reid, the winger released by Preston North End last month who has spent two spells with the Whites boss at Bradford.
Parkinson recognises an imbalance in a squad which was decimated by financial problems and poor forward planning during the reign of his predecessor, Neil Lennon.
But he insists there are no immediate plans to plunder Valley Parade, with many of the players he left behind tied down by contracts and waiting to see if they are a part of the Bantams’ future under the next man in charge.
“There are players there who I have worked with but they are all under contract and there is no need for Bradford to sell anyone,” said the 48-year-old, who confirmed there had been no contractual agreement with his former club to avoid signing their talents.
“We will have to wait and see – the new man might have his own plans and that’s the way football works.
“Managers come in and like different players. Someone I admired they may not like, but we’ll wait and see what happens. There are some good players there.”
Wanderers’ squad will return over the next couple of weeks for fitness testing and meetings with the new manager before appearing en masse on June 27 for the official start of pre-season training.
Parkinson is eager to meet with the squad and assess what needs to be done to turn them into promotion contenders.
“We need to get cracking.,” he said. “I want to meet the players and they’ve had a long break. I want to get to know them.
“There are some good players in this squad and I want to do everything I can to get more out of them.”
Meanwhile, there may be a cautionary tale for Parkinson in the words of his predecessor Neil Lennon, who has opened up on his experience at Bolton shortly after being unveiled as the new manager at Hibs.
The former Celtic boss felt badly let down by his superiors under the previous ownership and believes his 15-month spell at the Macron has damaged his reputation in the game.
Speaking at the weekend after signing a two-year deal at Easter Road, Lennon reckons the club’s slide towards relegation under interim boss Jimmy Phillips in the weeks after his departure showed the ingrained problems which Parkinson will now have to solve.
“Of course [my record at Bolton worried me] because you get judged on results,” the Northern Irishman said.
“But there were a lot of mitigating circumstances, such as the assurances I got that were broken very, very early. That made the job incredibly hard.
“You always gauge a job when you leave and after I departed they lost their next eight games in a row, so you could see that even with a new manager coming in there was no bounce because there was just no financial support to take the club where I wanted to go.
“It’s a great club but it’s found itself in a really difficult position. But whether you see it as a bad experience or a good one, it will stand me in good stead for this new job.”
Source