Alonso, Lee and Holden - INJURY UPDATE

As for the long-term absentees, Coyle said that Stuart Holden is continuing to spend time in America as he bids to return to fitness following his knee injury.

He also offered an update on the progress of Marcos Alonso and Chung-Yong Lee, who have been stepping-up their rehab work from respective foot and leg injuries at Euxton.

Coyle continued: "Marcos Alonso is back training on the grass and he will hopefully join in with the group on Monday.

"He might need a reserve game or two under his belt, but it's great to have him back.

"Stuart Holden's the one who will be out the longest of them all, but Chung-Yong Lee has done some light training on the grass.

"With the nature of Chung-Yong's injury, he just has to build up his confidence and when he does that, which might take a couple of weeks, he will then get involved with the group.

"We wish we had him and Stuart both back because they are top players, but it's important that we bring them back at the right time and that's what we will do."



[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

So effectively we could be down before any of them are back but we have to hope we are still in touch. Not that it's fair to expect them to turn our season round particularly as Holden and Lee have been out so long.

I doubt either will ever play for Bolton again.

As good a player as Holden probably is, he'll go down as an awful signing.

He won't because he's given us a significant amount of top quality to good performances.

Blessing Kaku was an awful signing, to put holden in that bracket is trying to get a bite.

Natasha Whittam wrote:I doubt either will ever play for Bolton again.

As good a player as Holden probably is, he'll go down as an awful signing.

Stupidest comment I've ever read (and there is lots of competition).

Some of you are blind where Stuart Holden is concerned.

He signed just over two years ago and has made around 28 appearances and scored two goals.

So that's an average of 14 games and one goal per year. PER YEAR!!

Despite him being injured for 75% of his Bolton career we have still been paying him thousands every week. If there was an employee at your place of work that spent 75% of their time off sick while on full pay you'd be slagging them off something rotton.

If some of you can't see that Holden has been a disastrous signing for BWFC I suggest you do a Business Studies course at your local college.

And I think you need to just go back to college Nat..

Since each positional place in the prem is worth £800,000 then I think Holdens wage is justified, without him we would have finished AT LEAST 1 place lower than we did last year..

Not to mention the extra support watching the games due to they type of football we played last year (which made the season tickets sales rise for this year as well).. which was massively influenced by Holden, and if you can't see that your just be ignorant towards the huge skill the boy has.

To classify Holden beside the turd players that have played every game is ridiculous (Knight)

If Holden has played 14 games this season, we wouldn't be 19th.

If Holden had*

Lofty_Love wrote:And I think you need to just go back to college Nat..

Since each positional place in the prem is worth £800,000 then I think Holdens wage is justified, without him we would have finished AT LEAST 1 place lower than we did last year..

Not to mention the extra support watching the games due to they type of football we played last year (which made the season tickets sales rise for this year as well).. which was massively influenced by Holden, and if you can't see that your just be ignorant towards the huge skill the boy has.

To classify Holden beside the turd players that have played every game is ridiculous (Knight)

If Holden has played 14 games this season, we wouldn't be 19th.

You're basing your point on "what if".

There are no "what ifs" in business. We paid him a shitload of cash, he scored two goals and played 14 games per year.

He may well be a fantastic player, but if he doesn't play for us again he will have been a waste of cash.

Being a waste of cash doesn't necessarily make him an 'awful signing'. Some players play the whole season, and they're even worse. putting a cash value on whether a player is good or not is wrong, its the performances they put in when available that counts. Your right Natasha, regards business, but there is no way the two can be compared in a football sense. If its all money-based some of the PL teams should be higher , or lower, should they not?

'Lofty Love' - Hello and welcome!

I see you've already met Natasha!

(At least she got you to break your duck on here and post - so she isn't all bad!).

Where would we be in the league you think if Holden had played 14 games for us this season?

Shirt sales, increased awareness and fan-base in the US should also be considered as by-products of having Stu Holden in the club. How many people do you know of whose hair has a separate following on twitter?

Hair Holden - Twitter
Sign up for Twitter to follow Hair Holden (@StuHoldensHair). Hello, I am Stuart
Holden's hair, and I am full of secrets.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Lofty_Love wrote:And I think you need to just go back to college Nat..

Since each positional place in the prem is worth £800,000 then I think Holdens wage is justified, without him we would have finished AT LEAST 1 place lower than we did last year..

Not to mention the extra support watching the games due to they type of football we played last year (which made the season tickets sales rise for this year as well).. which was massively influenced by Holden, and if you can't see that your just be ignorant towards the huge skill the boy has.

To classify Holden beside the turd players that have played every game is ridiculous (Knight)

If Holden has played 14 games this season, we wouldn't be 19th.

You're basing your point on "what if".

There are no "what ifs" in business. We paid him a shitload of cash, he scored two goals and played 14 games per year.

He may well be a fantastic player, but if he doesn't play for us again he will have been a waste of cash.

Wasnt the point I was making, I ment that its undeniable that he gained us at least one place last year, and perhaps the year before, so the theory that hes is draining money of us is invaild. As most, if we are being very very harsh, he has cost us around £500,000 over the time hes been here, but I highly doubt that.

Compare that to the lump of s#*t Elmander then £500,000 is no real loss (even though I personally think we have profited from Holden) + his contract has another year, so he will play.

Thanks Sluffy and I dont know how much higher we would be but, he cant support a whole team, but we would be higher, if only by 3 points, but its not only his skill which improves the team, its his 'american' personality, loyal and passionate, like Landon Donovan is, and this spreads through the team. Personally I do think with him we could be 6 points above relegation.. just my opinion, our midfield has been such an inconsistent disaster and he brings stability.

I agree - maybe a bit reluctantly - but I still agree.

I say reluctantly because one man can't make a team - but it really does seem Holden DOES make make a huge difference him being in Coyle's 4-4-2 set up - that there is no plan B without him (stop playing 4-4-2 would be the common sense thing to do - but we are talking about Coyle and tactics here!).

I'm guessing that Pratley was brought into be Holden's understudy - but with his performances coming up short and Holden being out and Mark Davies to weak to play effectively in four across the middle - that Coyle simply (and inexplicably?) has not been able to solve how to provide an effective engine room / driving force in midfield without Stuart.

Without trying to turn this into another Coyle rant - I feel that Coyle's inability to think beyond the obligatory 4-4-2 has cost us far, far more points than Holden would have being fit and available to play in one.

I think the opposition would quickly have come to the conclusion - stop Holden playing and you stop Bolton playing too!

I see you’re an Elmander fan too!

You're amongst friends on here then!

He's a tireless worker too, can't remember who it was against but i watched him run from one box to the other to make a tackle in the 90th minute once.

his work rate is infectious. He's not highly skilled he's just a fantastic worker and not afraid to have the ball, even if he gives it away, the next time you know he won't.

no one else at the club is like that, they just think they are.