Dougie Freedman calls for truce with Bolton Wanderers fans in plea for unity

Dougie Freedman has called for a ceasefire on the stands as he attempts to rebuild Wanderers’ stuttering season.

The Whites boss has come in for major criticism on the terraces after his side won just one of their opening eight league games in the Championship.

That culminated in banners demanding his removal as manager in the last home game against Rotherham United – and chants of “Freedman out” in the 1-0 defeat at Wolves.

Freedman’s situation wasn’t helped last night as his side bowed out of the Capital One Cup, although Wanderers emerged from the 2-1 defeat at Chelsea with their heads high, having given the Premier League leaders a real scare.

In any case, the Scot does appear to have the backing of Phil Gartside despite the chairman’s reluctance to make that support public – and that has prompted him to extend an olive branch to the fans in the build-up to Saturday’s home clash with Derby County.

Freedman feels he has the backing of many supporters who recognise the extent of the rebuilding job he undertook a little under two years ago.

But he wants everyone heading to the Macron Stadium on Saturday to put their personal differences with him aside and assist in trying to drive the club back up the table.

“The majority of Bolton fans that I’ve bumped into have been fantastic and fully understand where we are and why I have had to do what I have had to do,” he told The Bolton News.

“When you get masses, either on social media, or all in one stadium, then people tend to follow each other. They come up with these ideas but a few people just need to sit down and start looking at a bigger picture for this football club.

“We need to start pulling together because that is the only way we are all going some come through it.

“I haven’t got a magic formula. I can’t change things overnight.

“I don’t like our position in the table right now but I don’t see a single player or a single member of my staff tossing in the towel.

“The players are giving nothing less than 100 per cent and isn’t that what the fans want? Shouldn’t that be what they expect?

“I don’t look at it any deeper than that. Criticism is criticism but we have all got a job to do.”

Source

Quite simple for me, this one -

Give us something on the pitch that we can believe in and get behind and we will back you all the way.

We understand how difficult it must be to try and successfully manage Bolton Wanderers at the moment.

Honestly we do.......we're not stupid.

But........

...we need to see some sort of improvement on the pitch.

We can only base our judgement of you on what we see on the pitch every week and, to be honest, your current methods don't look to the uninitiated as though they're working.

Last season we had our worst start for a hundred years.

This term, we're not far behind replicating that achievement.

It's your job, Douglas, to get the players playing as a team who look like they're prepared to run through brick walls for BWFC.

If we see this, even if we lose the game, we will support you.

We're not demanding to be challenging for the top spot in the league, all we're asking for is a team that looks like it knows what it's doing and is prepared to give 100% every week.

Is that too much to ask for?

Breadman wrote:Is that too much to ask for?

Well, I'd also like for somebody to remove the half-eaten hamburger that's been on the ledge in the gents bogs for eleven months.

But otherwise, well said, Breadman!

i couldn't have put it any better than Breaders - agree 100%

I thought this might be an honest, heartfelt message, in which case I might have fallen for it. 

Instead, all I'm getting from it is:

"The boo-boys don't know what they're talking about. We're in this position because of the financial situation, nothing to do with my ridiculous tactics, my mindless squad rotation, or my inability to keep players motivated. Nobody could do better in my position."

People would be less reluctant to get behind him if he and the happy clappers stopped making out that his hands have been completely tied since he walked through the door. 

He should be doing a lot better than he is. The less honest he is about it, the less likely the fans are to get on his side.

Breadman wrote:Quite simple for me, this one -

Give us something on the pitch that we can believe in and get behind and we will back you all the way.

We understand how difficult it must be to try and successfully manage Bolton Wanderers at the moment.

Honestly we do.......we're not stupid.

But........

...we need to see some sort of improvement on the pitch.

We can only base our judgement of you on what we see on the pitch every week and, to be honest, your current methods don't look to the uninitiated as though they're working.

Last season we had our worst start for a hundred years.

This term, we're not far behind replicating that achievement.

It's your job, Douglas, to get the players playing as a team who look like they're prepared to run through brick walls for BWFC.

If we see this, even if we lose the game, we will support you.

We're not demanding to be challenging for the top spot in the league, all we're asking for is a team that looks like it knows what it's doing and is prepared to give 100% every week.

Is that too much to ask for?

Breaders, you should copy and paste that on WL's 'I love Dougie' thread. Sums up my feelings perfectly too!

Thing is, the players aren't giving 100%. Every fan in the ground knows it. Yes, they go through the motions but there's no real heart or passion for winning.

It's comments like this that alienate the fans, and certainly don't do anything to stimulate player motivation.

When you're down the bottom of the league the manager needs to be making it clear to players and the fans that he expects more effort.

Oh dear, i think Dougie's foot must have jumped striaght into his mouth judging by the Bolton News comment's about this article, you know, from the majority who understand what he's trying to do, OOPPSSSSS!!!!!!

Whereas I understand what he is saying, I see no constructive comments on how he is, has, or will be tackling our dire situation. What I do see is a manager under extreme pressure, and who is asking the fans not to attack him, or the team, as it would seem that we really don't understand how big the job is. I can only ask just how long is this rebuild scheduled for, and when will we see any player/team progress. Two years is a very long time without any encouraging signs whatsoever, especially when it's easier to continue to fall, than it is to halt, and start the long climb back.

The fans would be more likely to give Dougie a break if he were willing to give them one. Stop being so desperate not to lose matches and start thinking about trying to win them. I'm sick to death of his sob stories and waffle about what a grand job he is doing turning the clubs fortunes around under difficult circumstances.We've still got some good players,shut up moaning man and get out there and win some matches.
Ditch the two holding midfielders malarkey it doesn't work.Never has. Let the fullbacks get forward a bit more and play your best team instead of pissing about with this stupid rotation nonesense. The crowd will soon start to get behind you and the team again. Give it a go Dougie, we all know it makes sense even if you don't.

JAH wrote:

Breadman wrote:Quite simple for me, this one -

Give us something on the pitch that we can believe in and get behind and we will back you all the way.

We understand how difficult it must be to try and successfully manage Bolton Wanderers at the moment.

Honestly we do.......we're not stupid.

But........

...we need to see some sort of improvement on the pitch.

We can only base our judgement of you on what we see on the pitch every week and, to be honest, your current methods don't look to the uninitiated as though they're working.

Last season we had our worst start for a hundred years.

This term, we're not far behind replicating that achievement.

It's your job, Douglas, to get the players playing as a team who look like they're prepared to run through brick walls for BWFC.

If we see this, even if we lose the game, we will support you.

We're not demanding to be challenging for the top spot in the league, all we're asking for is a team that looks like it knows what it's doing and is prepared to give 100% every week.

Is that too much to ask for?

Breaders, you should copy and paste that on WL's 'I love Dougie' thread. Sums up my feelings perfectly too!

Yes the team should be giving 100% but unlike Natasha, I actually think they are doing. I think this is the best they've got. I think they're pulling out all the stops to try and get better results and I think they are totally behind the manager.

This is a squad of predominantly journeyman players which is all Dougie can afford to get and even these are his second and third choices. I think the problem is lack of quality not a lack of effort.

And if the problem is quality not effort, how can you even suggest that "we'll support you when you show us quality on the pitch"?

That's totally unrealistic and unfair and is a very loaded argument.

"I'll love you if you are someone else" is too conditional for me.

How many of the following would you class as anything other than "journeyman players" or relative unknowns?


Keith Branagan
David Felgate
Phil Brown
Mark Seagraves
Alan Stubbs
David Burke
Scott Green
Gary Parkinson
Nicky Spooner
Mark Winstanley
Jason Lydiate
Mark Came
Stuart Storer
David Lee
Tony Kelly
Jason McAteer
Julian Darby
Neil Fisher
Andy Roscoe
John McGinlay
Mark Patterson
Andy Walker
Tony Philliskirk
David Reeves

That was our first team squad from 1992.

Their record that season was:

P46 W27 D9 L10 F80 A41 GD+39 Pts 90

And they went up as runners-up to a very strong Stoke City team.

The difference between that team and the current lot is they made up for any technical deficiencies by playing as a team and working their nuts off.

And the manager picked his best XI every week to play together in a simple system that they all understood.

It works.

Freedman should try it.

Breadman wrote:How many of the following would you class as anything other than "journeyman players" or relative unknowns?


Keith Branagan
David Felgate
Phil Brown
Mark Seagraves
Alan Stubbs
David Burke
Scott Green
Gary Parkinson
Nicky Spooner
Mark Winstanley
Jason Lydiate
Mark Came
Stuart Storer
David Lee
Tony Kelly
Jason McAteer
Julian Darby
Neil Fisher
Andy Roscoe
John McGinlay
Mark Patterson
Andy Walker
Tony Philliskirk
David Reeves

That was our first team squad from 1992.

Their record that season was:

P46 W27 D9 L10 F80 A41 GD+39 Pts 90

And they went up as runners-up to a very strong Stoke City team.

The difference between that team and the current lot is they made up for any technical deficiencies by playing as a team and working their nuts off.

And the manager picked his best XI every week to play together in a simple system that they all understood.

It works.

Freedman should try it.

Good point well made, plus 1 Sir.

Cheers Martin.

And do you know what the best bit was for me?

The football was actually good to watch and very entertaining.

But that's not important nowadays, is it?

It's all about results........

I don't think that the current squad are anywhere near as good as the players you list and I think that the competition is far stronger nowadays- results certainly suggest so -  so the 92 team is irrelevant.
And I think it's disingenuous to demand the impossible in the sure knowledge that failure is inevitable. 
It's like refusing to bet against the sun coming up tomorrow and claiming to be clever when it does appear.

I'm not biting any more, as you're clearly just doing this now to try and look like some sort of "lone reasonable voice" who is taking a stand against the tide of populist opinion to try and prove a point.

Freedman's a fucking dunce but we're stuck with him because Gartside thinks he's skilled enough to keep us up.

I don't think he is, personally, and I'm sick of his "pseudo-intellectual" approach to football, which is over-complicating matters when he should be concentrating on getting the players (however talented or not) to play like a team in a system they understand and believe in.

It really is that simple.

Agree with you that the system, organisation and work rate in place aren't nearly good enough, the fact we can’t string a decent move together or keep clean sheets is evidence enough of that. 


But I’m not 100% sure that the quality of player is the same as ’92. I’m not sure how you’ve decided that – unless I’m reading it wrong.

If that was a question for me, I'm not suggesting that the quality of players in the 92 team is the same as the current crop.

I cited that group in response to Lusty's assertion / excuse that Freedman is having to try and work with second or third choice "journeyman" types to try and show that you don't need to fill your team with "names" to get results if you're a decent enough manager.

Were the 92 lot better players? No idea.

Were they a better team? Absolutely.

And that was 100% down to the manager.

There's nowt "pseudo-intellectual" about supporting your team through thick and thin and without caveats and conditions - especially when the conditions are impossible to meet. 
For the most part, Jason McAteer, Brownie, Stubbsy, Greeny etc could string a couple of passes together - and could defend a bit when required.
And look at that forward line. Natasha would squeak with delight if we had strikers of the calibre of Super John, David Lee and Andy Walker.
Current lot can't pass, move and keep possession for longer than a couple of minutes so the system, selection and organisation are rendered irrelevant as the problem is in the execution.

Well this team is shit. So they probably aren't worthy of your support as they clearly not up to the high standards you clearly feel you deserve.

Like I said, not biting any more.......