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KEITH Hill and David Flitcroft have promised to make Wanderers a topic of conversation in Bolton for the right reasons.
The new management team was unveiled to the media yesterday and wasted no time in declaring their ambition to get the club safe from relegation in League One.
After signing nine players on deadline day, Wanderers’ odds for the drop have already been slashed from 50/1 ON to 6/1 on in just 24 hours.
And though they have a considerable points deficit to claw back, both Boltonian coaches are convinced the team can stay in League One.
“We don’t want to look at what has been, we’re looking at 39 games,” said Hill. “We’re looking ahead with positivity, not considering points deductions or league position. We will build a team that reflects what the needs of the town are and the needs of the supporters.
“Points on the board will start generating a fear factor in opponents.
“We want the impossible dream, which is avoiding relegation. That is our ambition and we feel as though it is realistic.
“We are challenging the players, we are certainly going to challenge the rest of the division.
“We are not playing 39 friendlies, seeing the season out, we are here to challenge with courage and the spirit that the supporters deserve and respect and we are going to play the kind of football that excites you.”
Hoping to capitalise on a fresh start under new owners, the Football Ventures consortium, Flitcroft hopes to remove the stigma which has built during months of financial problems.
“I go out in Bolton, I socialise in Bolton, and we have stopped talking about football,” he told The Bolton News. “We have stopped talking about football, we talk about administration, about ownership, the doom, the gloom, it has to stop.
“Bolton people, they want to work hard and of a weekend they want to talk about what they have watched and the football they have seen, the passion they have seen, the quality of product.
“I live in a time where we don’t talk about that anymore. But we will be doing and that’s the thing why they went looking for two lads that would bring them that and we will do.”
Hill added: “I want to socialise in my local pub, and I want to engage with people about the way that we have played. I want to restore our identity as a football club.
“I don’t want to be going out and talking about administration, all the negative things that have been associated with this football club. We want to be positive and we want to be on the front foot. We are excited about the challenge, but the challenge is that we are taking on League One.”
Flitcroft has been a regular on the Bolton terraces down the years and recalls a time when the town’s football club was all people could talk about.
“I remember the Bruce Rioch era down at Burnden, the energy they played with, the passion, the quality of football – and I’m still friends with some of them.
“I watched people like Stevie Thompson – with that switch of play – or John Thomas and his drag-back, or Robbie Savage, who used to moon at us in the Manchester Road End. I’ve been through the lot.
“In Big Sam’s era, the professionalism, the players he brought in, the journey, your Djorkaeffs, Anelkas, Okochas. As a Bolton fan you never thought you would be watching those players.
“But it’s important to us, it’s important to our families, that we have those times to be proud about your club. We haven’t had that recently and we want it again.”
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/17878316.new-bolton-wanderers-management-team-target-return-good-times/