Gary Megson

Growler wrote:One of my "favourite" Meggo memories was after spending £40 million on players he set a team up to draw 0-0 at  home to Hibernian in a pre season friendly/testimonial.

One of my first matches at Burnden Park was a 5-5 draw in a testimonial and then along came Meggo to thrill us.

Was it Peter Thompson's testimonial against the Liverpool team (plus Duncan MacKenzie) that had just won the European Cup and paraded it on the night?

Super sub David Fairclough hat-trick on the night I seem to remember too.

If so I was there too that evening - coming to the grown straight from work, then off to a club to round a fantastic night off!

Happy days from long ago.

He now says he's ready to get back into managing again and will be applying for jobs 

I feel sorry for any club who ends up getting this plank as their next manager.

Norpig wrote:He now says he's ready to get back into managing again and will be applying for jobs 

I feel sorry for any club who ends up getting this plank as their next manager.

I know I'm in the minority but Megson is a decent manager - far better than the likes of Coyle, Lee and Freedman imo.

Yes he was highly negative, yes he got the majority of fans on his back and yes he had to go when it became poisonous - but he kept us up (when I doubted that would be possible) after taken over from Lee.

He rebuilt the side whilst doing so - yes he paid top dollar and not all his signings worked - but they did the job in keeping us up - and left more than a decent enough squad to have kept us there still until that clown Coyle got us relegated with a team that really was too good to ever have got relegated.

Good luck to him I say.

I think he will struggle to secure a decent job in the Championship. Fortunately, the momentum seems to be with managers who like their teams to play football, not strangle the life out of the game.

He got himself in the shop window for a couple of weeks though and I wouldn't be surprised to see him end up being utilised the same way Allardyce was by Sunderland and Palace. Struggling lower league teams will give him short-term contracts to pack their defences in the hope of securing survival, then boot him out for someone who actually enjoys the game.

Sluffy wrote:

Norpig wrote:He now says he's ready to get back into managing again and will be applying for jobs 

I feel sorry for any club who ends up getting this plank as their next manager.

I know I'm in the minority but Megson is a decent manager - far better than the likes of Coyle, Lee and Freedman imo.

Yes he was highly negative, yes he got the majority of fans on his back and yes he had to go when it became poisonous - but he kept us up (when I doubted that would be possible) after taken over from Lee.  

He rebuilt the side whilst doing so - yes he paid top dollar and not all his signings worked - but they did the job in keeping us up - and left more than a decent enough squad to have kept us there still until that clown Coyle got us relegated with a team that really was too good to ever have got relegated.

Good luck to him I say.

Strongly disagree there. I thought Meggo left us with a second rate central midfield, and poor strike force.

The central midfield under Megson was the main weakness when it should be the strength of the team.Cohen and Mark Davies were Championship players, McCann was over the hill and Muamba could tackle and harry competently but do bugger all else such as pass a football to a Bolton player

Compared to Allardyce's central midfield talent of Okocha, Nolan, Speed and Campo none of the players Megson left us in that area would have got a game.

It was only the temporary signing of Wilshire soon after Coyle arrived and the brilliant signing of Holden  that made the midfield strong enough for the Premier League.I am of the opinion that we would have been relegated that season if Megson hadnt been sacked.We were 19th going into the New Year when Megson was sacked.

And yes it was the Peter Thompson testimonial but you remember it better than i do!

Growler wrote:

Sluffy wrote:

Norpig wrote:He now says he's ready to get back into managing again and will be applying for jobs 

I feel sorry for any club who ends up getting this plank as their next manager.

I know I'm in the minority but Megson is a decent manager - far better than the likes of Coyle, Lee and Freedman imo.

Yes he was highly negative, yes he got the majority of fans on his back and yes he had to go when it became poisonous - but he kept us up (when I doubted that would be possible) after taken over from Lee.  

He rebuilt the side whilst doing so - yes he paid top dollar and not all his signings worked - but they did the job in keeping us up - and left more than a decent enough squad to have kept us there still until that clown Coyle got us relegated with a team that really was too good to ever have got relegated.

Good luck to him I say.

Strongly disagree there. I thought Meggo left us with a second rate central midfield, and poor strike force.

The central midfield under Megson was the main weakness when it should be the strength of the team.Cohen and Mark Davies were Championship players, McCann was over the hill and Muamba could tackle and harry competently but do bugger all else such as pass a football to a Bolton player

Compared to Allardyce's central midfield talent of Okocha, Nolan, Speed and Campo none of the players Megson left us in that area would have got a game.

It was only the temporary signing of Wilshire soon after Coyle arrived and the brilliant signing of Holden  that made the midfield strong enough for the Premier League.I am of the opinion that we would have been relegated that season if Megson hadnt been sacked.We were 19th going into the New Year when Megson was sacked.

And yes it was the Peter Thompson testimonial but you remember it better than i do!

Of course every midfield has put out since the teams of Allardyce with Okocha, Nolan, Speed and Campo have paled into insignificance in comparison - so hardly fair to blame Megson for that.

Maybe if he only needed to strengthen the midfield from the team Allardyce/Lee left behind he might have got closer to the quality we had lost but he also had to sort out the defence with Robinson, Knight, Cahill and Rickets being signed - as well as Lee - who was a quality midfielder for us and Matt Taylor.

As for the strike force - we still had Davies, so the only change was a down grade on Anelka - which obviously non of our subsequent managers were ever given the money to replace such a world class player with like for like.

Megson did however bring in Klasnic in on loan to the club.

I would argue that players Megson signed such as Cahill, Lee, and Klasnic are probably the best quality signings we have made (plus Holden), since Allardyce left (not including loan players).

As for Megson's points total when he was sacked (at the halfway point of the season), Coyle only bettered it in the second half of the season by one point only - until the last meaningless game of the season which we won.

Megson was so hated and Coyle was so lauded in that same season - yet their point totals were near enough identical to each other - and don't forget Coyle brought in Holden for his half of that season too!

I remember pointing out the points won by the respective managers at the time and questioned why nearly everyone thought Coyle was a genius and Megson a fool for achieving virtually the same number of points in the same number of games?

Clearly time as shown Coyle was rated too highly by the fans at the time and I would have hoped the same fans may have cut Megson some slack by now - but clearly the dislike of him is still there by many.

I didn't like him but only in the football sense. He did bring Klasnic in but then never played him as I recall. Most of the time a sub.  But he did keep us in the Prem.  You can't take that away.  He would be shite with the crew we have now though. Probably worse than Parky or close to it.

The amount of money spent and the poor quality side produced with it was my issue with Megson, Coyle spent roughly half the amount Megson did so expectations from me weren't so high.

In the relegation season, Coyle was told to sell the best player (Cahill) in the January transfer window which also reduced expectations somewhat.Our main rivals to avoid relegation, QPR spent around £20 million  in the same window we sold our best player.

Growler wrote:The amount of money spent and the poor quality side produced with it was my issue with Megson, Coyle spent roughly half the amount Megson did so expectations from me weren't so high.

In the relegation season, Coyle was told to sell the best player (Cahill) in the January transfer window which also reduced expectations somewhat.Our main rivals to avoid relegation, QPR spent around £20 million  in the same window we sold our best player.

I think everybody agrees that Megson spent a great deal and what he bought was generally average but what alternative did he have?

The side desperately needed strengthening, he could only do it in January, and everybody knows players prices are at a premium in January.

He bought what he did when the market was at its highest - through no fault of his.

That's exactly what Allardyce, Pardew, Pulis, Redknapp and all the other managers appointed to keep clubs up just before the January window have done since and still do now.

Our problem as Bolton fans were that Allardyce had spoiled us by his innovative way of bringing in world class players on the cheap and we simply couldn't afford to replace Okocha, Djorkaeff, Hierro, Campo, etc like for like in one go, particularly in a January transfer window.

We were bound to get poorer players in comparison - and at vastly higher transfer fees.

Hardly Megson's fault or failing.


When interviewing people for a job, one of the things you are taught is never to base someone's interview on the previous person you have interviewed.

If you've just seen a candidate who was shit, then the next person will appear to you to be brilliant in comparison and there is a danger that you will over rate them because of this rather than see them for their own strengths and weaknesses. The same is true if you interview a brilliant candidate first, you may very well judge the next candidate in comparison a great deal poorer than they actually are.

Yes Allardyce was/is a fantastic manager and Megson looks shit in comparison - but I don't believe he is actually half as bad as many Bolton fans view him.

He's not as good as Allardyce certainly - but few are.