OFFICAL Dougie Freedman new Bolton manager!

They know the club as in the way in and where the fire exits are but correct me if I'm wrong, they weren't involved in first team matters one jot, so apart from hearing a few whispers they're clueless.

I don't remember this clamoring for JP to take over before the bristol match?

trust me if we lose to Wolves people will be on the freedman bandwagon quicker than sammy lee will take the positives.

The Mail says we offered a 3 year deal worth 1.5 million

Bolton offered Dougie Freedman a three-year deal worth £1.5million to become their new boss on Monday night as Crystal Palace look to offer Steve Coppell a fifth stint at the club.

Palace had put out a statement earlier in the day rejecting Bolton's approach for Freedman, but changed their stance once the 38-year-old Scot made it clear that he wanted to leave Selhurst Park.

Sportsmail understands Bolton made contact with Palace on Saturday night before making their interest formal.

Palace owner Steve Parish is now considering a move for Coppell once Freedman's move has been ratified.

Parish is keen on including Coppell in a new-look football managerial set-up, though not necessarily as the club's next boss.

There could also be a role for ex-Palace striker Mark Bright, who works for the BBC.

Whether Coppell, who is director of football at Crawley Town, is keen on a return to Palace remains to be seen.

Caretaker boss Jimmy Phillips will be in charge for Bolton's game at Wolves on Tuesday night but Freedman, who was handed his first managerial job by Palace in January 2011, could be in place for Saturday's trip to Middlesbrough.

Neighbours Blackburn suffered another setback in their hunt for a successor to Steve Kean when Fulham refused a request to speak to their first-team coach Billy McKinlay.

Blackburn have switched their sights to McKinlay after failing to prise Tim Sherwood, also an ex-Rovers player, from Tottenham.

Fulham insist they will allow McKinlay to speak with Blackburn only once a compensation package has been agreed, but the Championship club hope that McKinlay will force the issue.

The 43-year-old Scot would bring in former Rovers striker Chris Sutton as his right-hand man.

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Hipster_Nebula wrote:We don't like Dougie's sample size but a few games with JP will be enough to prove he's the man.

again it's sentiment based on 45 minutes against Bristol City.

and of course the players say all the right things, not one of them turned on Coyle, not one of them turned on Megson FFS.

What do you think they're going to say "JP is a twat!"

DF has done ok so far this season. That's all people are raving about in favour of him. They lost their first 4 games of the season. Would anyone have wanted him a couple of months ago with that record? Put it into perspective. 1 win less for them this season and they would be currently sitting 11th. And if you took away their dodgy penalty against Bolton they would be 13th. Would anybody be thinking he was a genius still then?

Will he sort out our defence? They have conceded MORE than us this season (19 goals against in 11 games). Still the man for the job? They have had a couple of pretty flukey wins too this season. If you took some of their luckiness away (to the tune of 2 wins) they would be below us. It is very dodgy ground to claim that DF's current record at Palace is something which makes him worthy of the Bolton job.

If Dougie Freedman had lost a couple more games earlier in the season he probably would have been sacked.

We've been unlucky this season, if luck had gone our way we might be top and still have Coyle.

All just nonsense and pie in the sky I'm afraid. They are where they are. Trying to downplay their form this season as an argument for a man who's experience amounts to 45 minutes against Bristol City isn't going to convince me.

I'm more interested in his knack of getting young players in the team who are eager to impress.

If we're going down the route of young manager I'd have had Freedman and Robinson as my choices so I'm very happy.

If it was to be the arse kicking choice i'd have had Keane. Simple as that.

still yet to see a good reason for sticking with JP over someone else other than he's a bolton player and we beat Bristol City.

Good debate this Hipster. Let's call it a night and resume tomorrow!

I don't really see how anyone can have a really strong opinion on who to hire given the list we have. IMO we haven't been linked with anyone whose got me excited, OGS included.

Dougie Freedman seems to want to play nice attractive football, but Palaces defense does look suspect, and we don't need more of that! To be honest he hasn't particularly proven much at Palace yet, ok so he kept them up, Megson and Coyle managed to keep us up.. for a time, in fact this would be his year to prove his worth since hes had a few to sort them out and should be looking up this season. - but so far nothing special


Whats this need for a young manager? I just don't at all get why a requirement for a manager would be that he must be younger than 40, to me that doesn't make sense, id rather have a good 50 year old than a 'promising' 35 year old. Its as if people think anyone past 40 looses the ability to use attractive football!?


Managers tend to be a bit of a gamble, so I can't really be arsed getting worked up about who will end up in charge. I, as most did, thought Coyle was a great move so to be honest this time im not going to pre-judge whoever comes in and im just going to base them on the results when they do.

And with the Jimmy debate, theres also no proof that hes a bad manager as of yet, his youth team are top of the league, people on here seem to love Riley and Vela, got the team playing good football after 2 weeks in charge. Yeah hes inexperienced as a manager, but hes been in football his whole life, and all managers started somewhere. Like I said im not going to pre judge anyone, and so far, going off the result, team selection, and the new training schedules we've been hearing about, im happy with what Jimmys doing.

If we have a good performance against Wolves Id have no problem delaying the hiring of a new manager for a few games.

Natasha Whittam wrote:When Coyle was sacked I felt a surge of excitement I haven't felt for many years.

Now I seem to be faced with two choices: Jimmy bloody Phillips, a useless twat of a player whose pass to Matt Le Tissier cost us our place in the Premier League....or Dougie Freedman, a manager with less than a 100 games experience.

Fuck off Gartside you idiot. I told you Coyle would be a mistake, hopefully you'll listen to me this time.

You are critical about dougie being a manager with less than a hundred games as manager but you want di canio who has only managed in less than 60 league matches. That!s a bit silly.

I still cannot understand why we want someone so quickly. Remember when Toddy left and Browny was basically given 5 games before Sam arrived. But since Big Sam left it took less than 12 hours to replace him with LSL, less than 3 weeks for Megson, less than 3 weeks for Coyle and we seem to be making the same mistake, yet again!!!

I don't see the point in waiting about though. When you look at the list of candidates there wasn't a lot who looked much good. I think it was important to just get on with finding the right man quickly, I personally think dougie looks like he has something. I am looking forward to seeing what he can do.

Did anyone see the Eagles interview ? He made it quite clear that he and the team want JP and SL to stay in charge. He actually said that they have improved his fitness with their training methods.

Why do we seem to be in such a rush to go with DF ? If we beat Wolves and Boro, Garty may not have to look elsewhere.

Michael Bolton wrote:

You are critical about dougie being a manager with less than a hundred games as manager but you want di canio who has only managed in less than 60 league matches. That!s a bit silly.

Di Canio's one "weakness" is his lack of experience. But he brings a winning mentaliy with him, charisma, a pair of bollocks, and experience of playing football at the highest level.

Freedman brings a silly first name and not much else.

Truly ridiculous that we are willing to pay money for him.

Reebok Trotter wrote:Did anyone see the Eagles interview ? He made it quite clear that he and the team want JP and SL to stay in charge. He actually said that they have improved his fitness with their training methods.

Why do we seem to be in such a rush to go with DF ? If we beat Wolves and Boro, Garty may not have to look elsewhere.

Dougie has managed 90 games and he's inexperienced for the task.

but we'd be happy to give JP the keys after 3 games, as long as they're all wins.

What if we win three he gets the job and then we lose 9 in a row... oh dear. It's all ifs buts and maybes I'm afraid. And i don't take too much notice of what the players say, didn't they say Coyle was the man a couple of hours before he got sacked.

Why does it seem we are heading for a British man, yet again!!! We have never had a foreigner as a manager and there are quite a few on mainland Europe who would relish the chance of managing a British team - many quite cheap as well, along with decent experience!!!



As I say, why are we rushing for a replacement instead of looking at the full playing field of managers across Europe, instead of just same level in Britain!!!

Palace and Freedman to release a JOINT statement on Wednesday.

thats sure sounds like a new contract to me.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Palace and Freedman to release a JOINT statement on Wednesday.

thats sure sounds like a new contract to me.

I hope so.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Palace and Freedman to release a JOINT statement on Wednesday.

thats sure sounds like a new contract to me.

I hope so.

Understand the reservations about Freedman but we're not getting Di-Canio so I'm not really sure why you'd be happy.

If Freedman turns us down i can't see anything other than the "dream" team of bolton JP/SL taking over.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:

Understand the reservations about Freedman but we're not getting Di-Canio so I'm not really sure why you'd be happy.

If Freedman turns us down i can't see anything other than the "dream" team of bolton JP/SL taking over.

Everytime someone turns us down we get one step nearer Di Canio.

SSN have just said Freedman is having talks with us today.

I'd be surprised if he turned us down but it also wouldn't surprise me if he was holding out for a new deal at Palace.