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Blue skies, immaculate pitches, social media banter and even the security guard cracking jokes – Wanderers training ground is in a good place right now.
Keith Hill is clearly enjoying his lot. Rather than chat to press in the shadows of the portable offices he marches up to the first team training pitches to survey the view.
“Look around you,” he says, taking a deep breath. “How gorgeous is that?”
He is quite correct, of course. Amid all this summer’s financial doom and gloom, foodbanks and padlocks it has been easy to lose to track of what Bolton has got going for it, or rather what was at stake.
Whether Hill opts to change his arena when the November wind, rain and sleet come firing in, we will wait and see, but the refreshing wide-eyed wonder with which he views his current challenge is very hard to resist.
Of course, the League One table provides a sobering note of reality – but, for now, most people seem content to look away and focus more optimistically on a point on the horizon.
Hill, who has managed in more spartan training environments at previous clubs, “I am enjoying this – don’t ever think I won’t in any way, shape or form,” he said. “This is a privilege for me, a great opportunity to work with a good group of players and on behalf of the supporters.
“I am a Boltonian. I don’t know how many have managed Bolton or whether I am privileged in that position but I know it’s something nobody will ever be able to take away from me.
“It is a job that me and Flicker have always wanted to do. We did everything we could to get this and we are going to embrace it, no doubt in my mind.”
Although Little Hulton-born Walter Rowley, who led the Whites to the Football League War Cup in 1945, may stake a partial claim, only one other ‘true’ Boltonian has managed Wanderers, and that was Nat Lofthouse. No pressure there, then.
But beneath the bonhomie, the videos of players doing keepie-uppies, the talk of fresh attitudes and new beginnings, there is more significant work going on.
Hill’s side was praised for their work on the ball against Oxford United in midweek but come up against a Black Cats side whose principle strength – like Rotherham before them – comes from the flanks, in particular the triumvirate of Lyndon Good, Chris Maguire and Aiden McGeady.
Though the Bolton boss is keen to establish his own team’s style of play, there is a sense that the last few days has been spent reinforcing what Wanderers must to without the ball to neutralise Sunderland’s chief threats.
“We need to develop these players to the way we want to play the game,” Hill said. “It’s as much psychological and physical and it is technical. We are drilling into these lads what we expect of them in and out of possession.
“We are asking them to work harder for longer periods and a lot of the younger players have to learn that a lot of this game is about being functional as well as having flair.
“When we have not got the ball where are we going to win it? When are we going to win it? What do we do with it next?
“We don’t want to overload lads with information so they can’t process it, so we have to do this in blocks. Tools of learning come in many different guises – we can use smart TVs, the tactics board, you name it, we’ll use it to improve the players.”
“From the first session we’ve tried to create an understanding of our identity and as we progress, I think people will better understand it.
“Rotherham wasn’t a rude awakening, it was just a building block. We took it back on to the training ground on Monday and changed things slightly, then took it into Tuesday against Oxford.”
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Keith Hill is clearly enjoying his lot. Rather than chat to press in the shadows of the portable offices he marches up to the first team training pitches to survey the view.
“Look around you,” he says, taking a deep breath. “How gorgeous is that?”
He is quite correct, of course. Amid all this summer’s financial doom and gloom, foodbanks and padlocks it has been easy to lose to track of what Bolton has got going for it, or rather what was at stake.
Whether Hill opts to change his arena when the November wind, rain and sleet come firing in, we will wait and see, but the refreshing wide-eyed wonder with which he views his current challenge is very hard to resist.
Of course, the League One table provides a sobering note of reality – but, for now, most people seem content to look away and focus more optimistically on a point on the horizon.
Hill, who has managed in more spartan training environments at previous clubs, “I am enjoying this – don’t ever think I won’t in any way, shape or form,” he said. “This is a privilege for me, a great opportunity to work with a good group of players and on behalf of the supporters.
“I am a Boltonian. I don’t know how many have managed Bolton or whether I am privileged in that position but I know it’s something nobody will ever be able to take away from me.
“It is a job that me and Flicker have always wanted to do. We did everything we could to get this and we are going to embrace it, no doubt in my mind.”
Although Little Hulton-born Walter Rowley, who led the Whites to the Football League War Cup in 1945, may stake a partial claim, only one other ‘true’ Boltonian has managed Wanderers, and that was Nat Lofthouse. No pressure there, then.
But beneath the bonhomie, the videos of players doing keepie-uppies, the talk of fresh attitudes and new beginnings, there is more significant work going on.
Hill’s side was praised for their work on the ball against Oxford United in midweek but come up against a Black Cats side whose principle strength – like Rotherham before them – comes from the flanks, in particular the triumvirate of Lyndon Good, Chris Maguire and Aiden McGeady.
Though the Bolton boss is keen to establish his own team’s style of play, there is a sense that the last few days has been spent reinforcing what Wanderers must to without the ball to neutralise Sunderland’s chief threats.
“We need to develop these players to the way we want to play the game,” Hill said. “It’s as much psychological and physical and it is technical. We are drilling into these lads what we expect of them in and out of possession.
“We are asking them to work harder for longer periods and a lot of the younger players have to learn that a lot of this game is about being functional as well as having flair.
“When we have not got the ball where are we going to win it? When are we going to win it? What do we do with it next?
“We don’t want to overload lads with information so they can’t process it, so we have to do this in blocks. Tools of learning come in many different guises – we can use smart TVs, the tactics board, you name it, we’ll use it to improve the players.”
“From the first session we’ve tried to create an understanding of our identity and as we progress, I think people will better understand it.
“Rotherham wasn’t a rude awakening, it was just a building block. We took it back on to the training ground on Monday and changed things slightly, then took it into Tuesday against Oxford.”
Source