Beyond Belief

Well it is to me although others will read this much differently than I do I guess -



PHIL Gartside still has firm faith that Owen Coyle will lead Wanderers to safety in the final six games of the season.

Even though he will be watching anxiously this weekend as the club’s relegation rivals get a chance to forge further ahead, the chairman remains steadfast in his belief that the Whites will be playing Premier League football for a 12th successive season next term.

Coyle’s own confidence in his team’s survival chances did not appear to shift one iota despite successive defeats against Fulham and Newcastle United last week, which put the club back in the bottom three.

And while Wanderers will have two games in hand on many of the teams around them when they return to action against Swansea City next Saturday, they could potentially be five points adrift of Wigan and QPR by the time they get the chance to make ammends.

Odds on the club returning to the Championshp, where they last played in 2001, have been cut over the last seven days.

But speaking to The Bolton News, Gartside confirmed he remained completely supportive of the man he appointed just over two years ago.

“I’ve got the easiest job in the world managing Owen Coyle,” he said.


“I have implicit trust in him. I can’t tell him how to set a team up, how to do training, or set his staff up, I can only be supportive.

“People sometimes say he’s unreal, he’s always positive, he has faith - but that’s him and that’s why I love working with him.

“I know what he wants and he knows I’ll support him, and that’s what we’re about.

“I don’t sit with him and analyse the game - I don’t even talk to him about football. People think I must go and talk tactics, but I don’t even want to hear the team when he’s made his mind up on Friday afternoon.

“If he wants support on that front, of course I’ll listen. But the relationship has got to be that way and it has been the same for every manager I’ve ever had here.”

Coyle won manager of the month for leading Wanderers to three successive victories in March, set against the backdrop of Fabrice Muamba’s dramatic collapse at White Hart Lane and subsequent remarkable reovery in hospital.

That accomplishment was tarnished somewhat by results over the Easter weekend, but Gartside remains impressed by how his manager has led the club in difficult times.

“It has been a human story and it’s what Owen is,” he said.

“If he was the best kept secret before, he isn’t now.

“It has been about the passion for his job, the passion for his faith and the passion for his family - and that’s his own personal family but one that extends to his players.

“He works with them day in, day out, and he treats them exactly like his own.”

Coyle has spoken openly about his rebuilding plans at the Reebok, which are likely to gather pace in the summer with 10 senior first team players out of contract.

An emphasis has been placed on lowering the average age of the squad and balancing out a wage bill that had escalated under previous manager Gary Megson.

And Gartside can already see signs that the “grand plan” is taking shape.

“We have got the best Academy structure we have ever had and kids coming through now who have been with the club since they were seven years old,” he said.

“That’s unprecedented since the Academy was set up. People mistakenly think Kevin Nolan or Nicky Hunt came through the youth but they didn’t. They were 14 or 15 when they came through.

“Joe Riley, Adam Blakeman and Josh Vela - all these lads have been with us for years.

“I have given up trying to work out what the average age of this squad is now because it has dropped so quickly.

“Someone brought it home to me when they said we had a creche for the players’ wives and we’ve run out of kids because the players we have now haven’t got kids, and some of them haven’t got wives.

“It’s the age group and the demographics that have totally changed. It has passed over people, and we haven’t really made a big play of it - but it is going to be a real strength in the future.”

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You must have a pretty set view of the world if a chairman being supportive of his manager at a difficult time is beyond belief.

I know it's bullshit, but Garty has to say those things.

But what bugs me is this rebuilding bollocks people within the club keep coming out with - unless we have some big money in the Summer the team is going to be even worse next season (if that's possible).

So garty is allowed to give "positive" interviews but when Coyle does he's a liar and a fanny.

I don't think it is going to be worse - I think it will just be younger. Hungry, young players who want to do well and impress instead of jaded old farts who are set in their ways? Easy choice to me.

It's the bit where independent assessors (the bookmakers) are viewing our survival chances as becoming weaker by the day and the company's Chairman (Gartside) not even speaking to his MD (Coyle) about the operation of the business - that I find beyond belief!

I'd be interested to know of any other organisation that functions in this way?

I don't take that bit literally though - I read that as he doesn't say "I think you should play Miyaichi instead of Eagles, and try Ream in defensive mid and use Zat Knight alongside Wheater."

Hipster_Nebula wrote:So garty is allowed to give "positive" interviews but when Coyle does he's a liar and a fanny.

Yes. BWFC is a business so the Chairman has to be seen supporting the manager he chose. While I don't expect the manager to publically slag the players every week, he should be more honest when talking to the fans and media. He doesn't have the same shackles as Garty.

I just think he's saying he lets Coyle get on with the job and doesn't interfere in footballing mattters.

Contrast that with the likes of Abramovich and Moxley who have been known to rock up in the dressing room at full time after a defeat, and I can see why he makes that point.

What everyone needs to accept, whether they like it or not, is that we have a chairman who supports the current manager 100%.

Nowt like confidence!

Just because our Chairman suppoets our manager, doesn't make things right. From a different angle, it could be said that the manager is misfiring badly, and he's getting no usefull guidance from the Chairman. I sometimes thing the management of BWFC is scripted by the same people who wrote Dumb and Dumber.

Nobody is claiming that the chairman supporting the manager "makes things right".

No, but the inference is there.

In which comments is the implication there?

I just knew you would take the bait. Also, its not 'implication', its 'inference', something quite different. I'll call it a day on this as our comments will detract form the main thread.

I was genuinely interested to know why you thought this, but fair enough.

I know you wrote 'inference', but sorry, that is incorrect. Imply and infer are not interchangeable terms. You can infer from what other people say, but they can only imply originally.

Nice try, but thats it for me, (on this one)

If anyone actually believes anything that comes from the Reebok camp is from the heart is a fool. Its all scripted by the useless PR department. Its been like this since Gartside came to the helm, if not before. I just take it all with a pinch of salt - the biggest laugh are when the annual results are announced and the amount of spin they use then to show how positive things are.

Agree, the only truth to me as a Bolton supporter, and one that cannot be manipulated by anyone, is the league table.

In fairness, its not just Gartside and Coyle who spout the shite. All the Chairmen and Managers are at it. Do we really expect Chairmen and Managers to come out with a load of doom and gloom at a press conference? What purpose would it serve other than to alienate fans and reduce ticket sales?

Sport is all about putting a positive spin on everything. Brian Clough was probably the exception but in the main it wouldn't do much good for morale for management and owners to describe their team as fcuking crap.