I'm spoilt for choice,' says Bolton Wanderers boss Dougie Freedman

Wanderers boss Dougie Freedman is relishing another selection headache at Doncaster tomorrow night.

The Scot is having to make tough decisions at present with some of his star men from earlier in the season sitting on the sidelines.

But Freedman is delighted to have options available and competition for places.

He believes it is that factor that has seen them lose just once in 10 games and stretch their unbeaten away run to five matches with a last-gasp 1-0 victory at Huddersfield on Saturday.

The matchwinner on Saturday was one of Freedman’s loan additions and he says the impact of those he has brought in has been key as he starts to see his own team forming.

Freedman said: “I’m looking forward to this week because I now have a group of players who know that no position is guaranteed.

“We have top players in there who know if they don’t perform at the highest level like their team-mates, we can soon change things around.

“We have a really strong squad and bench and this week we hope to be as strong as we can be.

“You need competition if you are going to win in the Championship.

“At the beginning of the season we were having to play players who were not fully fit or we didn’t have the resources to change it when we had a lot of games.

“Now we have that, we have a good injection of players to come on and perform.

“That’s healthy for the club.” Not only is Freedman pleased to have competition for places but he is also pleased with the quality of the personnel at his disposal And he stands by his heavy involvement in the loan market.

Freedman added: “I was criticised in January by some about letting players out but that was done to get loan players in who want to be at the football club and who were good players.

“I just felt the football club needed people who wanted to play for the football club for the right reasons. “We have that now and benefit from that.”

Source

Freedman wrote:I was criticised in January by some about letting players out but that was done to get loan players in who want to be at the football club and who were good players.

I just felt the football club needed people who wanted to play for the football club for the right reasons. We have that now and benefit from that.

It's smugness like this that almost makes me feel aggrieved at the decent run we're on.

He was criticised in January for loaning out Craig Davies, a player he signed, and completely ousted from the team. If he's saying he had to in order to bring other players in, I'm guessing he didn't come here on the cheap either.

Fair play to him for bringing in Juke, he's been fantastic. Mason has been good too although things would have clicked months sooner had we played to his strengths back then. As for Trotter, he just makes every bit of the piece I've quoted sound ridiculous.

doffcocker wrote:It's smugness like this that almost makes me feel aggrieved at the decent run we're on.

He was criticised in January for loaning out Craig Davies, a player he signed, and completely ousted from the team. If he's saying he had to in order to bring other players in, I'm guessing he didn't come here on the cheap either.

Fair play to him for bringing in Juke, he's been fantastic. Mason has been good too although things would have clicked months sooner had we played to his strengths back then. As for Trotter, he just makes every bit of the piece I've quoted sound ridiculous.

Couldn't agree more. I absolutely hate his smug way of saying I was right, conveniently forgetting all the things he got wrong.

And this competition for places is absolute bollocks, just because you have a replacement for every position doesn't mean you have a strong squad. Especially when half of them belong to other clubs.

Probably our strongest team right now consisting of current players and those likely to be here next season is:

Bogdan

Baptiste
Wheater
Ream
Tierney

Danns
Mark Davies
Spearing
Medo
Lee

Beckford

Does anyone apart from Dougie think that team can win the Championship?

Fuck off.

doffcocker wrote:

Freedman wrote:I was criticised in January by some about letting players out but that was done to get loan players in who want to be at the football club and who were good players.

I just felt the football club needed people who wanted to play for the football club for the right reasons. We have that now and benefit from that.

It's smugness like this that almost makes me feel aggrieved at the decent run we're on.

He was criticised in January for loaning out Craig Davies, a player he signed, and completely ousted from the team. If he's saying he had to in order to bring other players in, I'm guessing he didn't come here on the cheap either.

Fair play to him for bringing in Juke, he's been fantastic. Mason has been good too although things would have clicked months sooner had we played to his strengths back then. As for Trotter, he just makes every bit of the piece I've quoted sound ridiculous.

I'm failing to see how that's a smug comment, he's justifying a move that a lot of fans questioned. What's the problem?

bwfc1874 wrote:

I'm failing to see how that's a smug comment, he's justifying a move that a lot of fans questioned. What's the problem?

He's taking credit for moving out a player he wasted £300k on.

If he hadn't made the mistake in the first place.......

No, he's explaining why he did it and let's face it getting rid of Craig Davies to bring in Juke was hammered by loads of fans including you. It's proved to be the right decision.

Dougie's an incredibly smug person.

This season has been an absolute shambles. It's been a case of trial and error from start to finish. There's been no direction in his thinking, yet when things start to go right, he talks like it's all part of one plan, and that we've just been unlucky in the past. I still can't get over him saying after the 5-1 at Leeds that "it's been coming", as if he'd stick to his guns all season and it was now paying off.

He's done nothing but moan about the mess Coyle left him (even though it was more or less Coyle's team that he almost took into the play-offs last season), yet here he is taking credit for moving on one of his own signings to make room for players that are any good. And when I say "any good", I mean Dougie's idea of "any good".

By the way I had no complaints about Juke coming in for Davies as such, apart from that it's something that could only benefit us short term. It's hard to imagine Davies giving more to the team than Juke has had he been given the chance. Trotter though is a different story.

He's starting to remind me of Mugson with all his "I took this club further in Europe than it's ever been before in its history" bollocks....

doffcocker wrote:Dougie's an incredibly smug person.

This season has been an absolute shambles. It's been a case of trial and error from start to finish. There's been no direction in his thinking, yet when things start to go right, he talks like it's all part of one plan, and that we've just been unlucky in the past. I still can't get over him saying after the 5-1 at Leeds that "it's been coming", as if he'd stick to his guns all season and it was now paying off.

He's done nothing but moan about the mess Coyle left him (even though it was more or less Coyle's team that he almost took into the play-offs last season), yet here he is taking credit for moving on one of his own signings to make room for players that are any good. And when I say "any good", I mean Dougie's idea of "any good".

By the way I had no complaints about Juke coming in for Davies as such, apart from that it's something that could only benefit us short term. It's hard to imagine Davies giving more to the team than Juke has had he been given the chance. Trotter though is a different story.

I think that's entirely down to interpretation, what I've read above doesn't sound smug to me in the slightest just explaining his actions, same with the comments after Leeds we'd just beaten Blackburn and Watford, I just don't see it. Plenty of fans thought we'd get on a good run sooner or later. So i guess it's just down to how we read comments.

Im not saying you're wrong but I can't recall him blaming Coyle in any instances, he's moaned about the state of the finances and squad but is that really unjustified when there's Keith Andrews on a 3 year £20,000 a week contract, or Pratley on 4 year or Sordell or N'gog? I think it's fair to apportion some blame to Coyle, but obviously Dougie has to take a large share of the blame for what's been a poor season.

It's obvious enough he's going to be here next season, it's also pretty obvious he's on his last chance. Another poor start to the season after a summer clear out and he'll be gone, there won't be anybody left defending him.

bwfc1874 wrote: Another poor start to the season after a summer clear out and he'll be gone, there won't be anybody left defending him.

Wanderlust and Reebok Trotter will still be happy clapping.

bwfc1874 wrote:
Im not saying you're wrong but I can't recall him blaming Coyle in any instances, he's moaned about the state of the finances and squad but is that really unjustified when there's Keith Andrews on a 3 year £20,000 a week contract, or Pratley on 4 year or Sordell or N'gog? I think it's fair to apportion some blame to Coyle, but obviously Dougie has to take a large share of the blame for what's been a poor season.

Don't get me wrong, I don't recall a time Coyle's name was mentioned, but he has spoke a lot about the mess he inherited in terms of the players and their wages.
Obviously, I don't have a problem with him saying he took over an uneconomical squad, he'd be right. But a lot of the players left behind by Coyle played key roles in the play-off push last season, and are playing very well at the moment, overpaid or not.

... so if Dougie hadn't taken the measures he did, we would have been relegated?

Thanks Dougie!

(Is he now the best manager he's ever been?)

A lot of amateur psychologists on here capable of interpreting what DF thinks from the media drivel. Inspired.
As to the article, it's good that we finally have a lot of players back and competing for places though. Now neither the players or Dougie have any excuse other than missing a proper left back, although it's a bit late to do anything about this season.

wanderlust wrote:A lot of amateur psychologists on here capable of interpreting what DF thinks from the media drivel. Inspired.

You can't just take every bit of utter shite he comes out with and say "it's media drivel so it's meaningless".

I don't think anybody really knows what goes on in his head. That's part of the problem.