Worth a punt? - Anelka

Just quit West Brom apparently -

Nicolas Anelka cleared out his locker at West Bromwich Albion's training ground on Thursday and declared he is leaving the Hawthorns, less than two months after signing as a free agent.

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sad story, all the best to him.

Lightweight ... and I'm not so sure about that dodgy beard.

he loved his time with Bolton, stranger things have happened i suppose but very much doubt it would happen.

Make the call dougie!  

Anelka isn't Dougie's type of striker. There's no room here for a proven goalscorer.

He was the highest earner at west brom with 60k a week..

Best Striker we had in a decade ...... come on back.......I doubt it though.....no relationship with Doogie for starters and high wages no doubt.

terenceanne wrote:Best Striker we had in a decade ...... come on back.......I doubt it though.....no relationship with Doogie for starters and high wages no doubt.

Though everyone hated him when he didn't score for weeks on end at the beginning of his tour with us.

It's true. As we have a generation of fans who have experienced nothing but huge expenditure for a club with our fanbase size - and the resultant relative success that came as a result, expectations were and are ridiculously high.
Even now we have fans with unrealistic expectations of the the club and players. It is beyond me why people can't enjoy having great players like Anelka at our club whilst we were briefly, albeit unsustainably, willing to splash cash on them.
Some people just don't know how to enjoy themselves whilst the going is good, and that's probably why they are never satisfied.
They are in for a miserable time for however long it takes us to rebuild and come back again which is a shame as some clubs have fans who support them through thick and thin instead of getting on players and managers backs all the time. Our lot are dickheads at times.

I don't think it's unrealistic to want my team to be playing in the top flight. I grew up watching a top flight team and also suffered through many years of watching their demise. When we finally got back to the top division I was exstatic and after knowing what it was like to not be there for so many years, I would have thought the administration would have realised the importance of staying there. Poor management has led to our current position and like it or not we have a squad of players who are not and never will be Prem quality. After supporting 'my' team for over 60 years I feel I have have the right to be critical if I think the people who are running the club are doing a poor job. I've put more emotionally into my club than any of the people now running it, and when things get even more pear shaped, they'll walk away with their fat paychecks while I'm still wearing my Bolton shirt with pride.

waynagain wrote:I don't think it's unrealistic to want my team to be playing in the top flight. I grew up watching a top flight team and also suffered through many years of watching their demise. When we finally got back to the top division I was exstatic and after knowing what it was like to not be there for so many years, I would have thought the administration would have realised the importance of staying there. Poor management has led to our current position and like it or not we have a squad of players who are not and never will be Prem quality. After supporting 'my' team for over 60 years I feel I have have the right to be critical if I think the people who are running the club are doing a poor job. I've put more emotionally into my club than any of the people now running it, and when things get even more pear shaped, they'll walk away with their fat paychecks while I'm still wearing my Bolton shirt with pride.

Not questioning the right to criticise or to want success - more saying that regardless of how we got here - we're here, so let's move on, back the (crap) team we currently have and give them time to try to work it out. (prompted by being reminded of how Anelka was treated before he scored "that goal".)
When the financial playing field was less significant, we had a top team on merit. Now that finances are the key factor in success potential we have to recognise that having bought a degree of success for Allardyce, and that any residual will to get further into debt was stymied by Megson, we won't be buying top players or paying top wages in the foreseeable future.
Frustrating, but it doesn't help if the fans are on the managers and players back. My hope is that Dougie builds from youth and the work he is doing now will hopefully pay off in a few years' time. This team puts me through the mangle, but I won't call the players during a game, regardless of how shit they might be.

We are actually closer to the 4th division than the Prem. People don't want to hear that, but it's a fact. I never have, and never will boo the players, but I think it's the fan's resposibilty to let the admin know if they think they are not doing the 'right thing' for the club. If you don't and continue to go like sheep every week and accept mediocre prduct being dished up, the admin will give you more of the same in bigger portions. Even though I've lived in the USA for over 30 years, I re-newed my season ticket every year until Megson came along. But, that was the last straw for me and I cancelled. I know I'm not the only person to no longer have a season ticket, but the club must know that the crowds are getting smaller, don't they realise that fans don't feel they are getting value for money?
It's great that you think we are going to build a team from our youth programme. Sounds great on paper, but any quality player who might emerge in our youth ranks will be poached by one of the big clubs before he turns 19.

waynagain wrote:We are actually closer to the 4th division than the Prem. People don't want to hear that, but it's a fact. I never have, and never will boo the players, but I think it's the fan's resposibilty to let the admin know if they think they are not doing the 'right thing' for the club. If you don't and continue to go like sheep every week and accept mediocre prduct being dished up, the admin will give you more of the same in bigger portions. Even though I've lived in the USA for over 30 years, I re-newed my season ticket every year until Megson came along. But, that was the last straw for me and I cancelled. I know I'm not the only person to no longer have a season ticket, but the club must know that the crowds are getting smaller, don't they realise that fans don't feel they are getting value for money?
It's great that you think we are going to build a team from our youth programme. Sounds great on paper, but any quality player who might emerge in our youth ranks will be poached by one of the big clubs before he turns 19.

We'll see Wayne. Dougie seems to be pretty good at nicking young players from others so maybe that has changed. Plus youth development is his thing.

Good point about the fans letting the manager know, but I reckon that expectations are so unrealistically high, they'll complain about everything - which won't help. This is a time to be patient IMO.