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The league table may suggest that Wanderers’ new manager has a mountain to climb but former Burnden Park favourite Andy Walker believes there is plenty to attract top names to the job.
While the new incumbent, expected to be in place by next week’s trip to Birmingham City, will first have to claw back a five-point gap to safety before having any other targets in mind, there is still plenty of room for optimism as a new appointment is made.
Walker was surprised to see Wanderers’ form falter to such an extent that Dougie Freedman lost his job but has seen enough in the squad and the infrastructure at his former club to suggest the next manager will have sufficient tools to avoid a drop into League One.
“I’m convinced that Bolton will survive this season,” he told The Bolton News. “You’ve seen a lot of clubs – Norwich, Manchester City, Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves – fall down that extra level but I think the timing of the decision gives the next man plenty of chance to turn things around.
“I don’t think the squad that Dougie Freedman had needs nine or 10 new signings, I think it’s a matter of one or two. Perhaps that recruitment policy does need to be looked at.
“But crucially it’s about reinvigorating the place and getting the fans back onside with the club. You can’t really succeed without that.”
Walker, whose goals helped blast the Whites out of the doldrums in the early nineties, believes parallels can be drawn with the situation he first encountered at Bolton under Phil Neal.
The club had fallen into a funk after play-off defeat to Tranmere Rovers in 1991 and milled around mid-table for much of the Glaswegian’s first season.
“The ambition under Phil Neal had always been to get promotion but we found ourselves down the bottom of the table after about a dozen games,” he said.
“We went on a really good run and won a lot of games around January time and it looked like it might pay off but we dropped off again towards the end.
“From there it was up and up. We’d collected a group of players who were really hungry to be playing at a higher level.
“I liked playing alongside Tony Philliskirk and you had winners like Phil Brown, Scott Green and Julian Darby already in the squad.
“We just needed that bit of magic. In came John McGinlay and we clicked, and then you had the youngsters like Alan Stubbs and Jason McAteer who flourished when Bruce Rioch came in.
“You had one or two local lads in there and the whole place was different.
“The team I saw the other week when I was down at Leeds wasn’t that bad, albeit it missed an astonishing number of chances.
“There is nothing to say that can’t be the same for Bolton right now but the next manager they name has got to be the right one.”
Source
While the new incumbent, expected to be in place by next week’s trip to Birmingham City, will first have to claw back a five-point gap to safety before having any other targets in mind, there is still plenty of room for optimism as a new appointment is made.
Walker was surprised to see Wanderers’ form falter to such an extent that Dougie Freedman lost his job but has seen enough in the squad and the infrastructure at his former club to suggest the next manager will have sufficient tools to avoid a drop into League One.
“I’m convinced that Bolton will survive this season,” he told The Bolton News. “You’ve seen a lot of clubs – Norwich, Manchester City, Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves – fall down that extra level but I think the timing of the decision gives the next man plenty of chance to turn things around.
“I don’t think the squad that Dougie Freedman had needs nine or 10 new signings, I think it’s a matter of one or two. Perhaps that recruitment policy does need to be looked at.
“But crucially it’s about reinvigorating the place and getting the fans back onside with the club. You can’t really succeed without that.”
Walker, whose goals helped blast the Whites out of the doldrums in the early nineties, believes parallels can be drawn with the situation he first encountered at Bolton under Phil Neal.
The club had fallen into a funk after play-off defeat to Tranmere Rovers in 1991 and milled around mid-table for much of the Glaswegian’s first season.
“The ambition under Phil Neal had always been to get promotion but we found ourselves down the bottom of the table after about a dozen games,” he said.
“We went on a really good run and won a lot of games around January time and it looked like it might pay off but we dropped off again towards the end.
“From there it was up and up. We’d collected a group of players who were really hungry to be playing at a higher level.
“I liked playing alongside Tony Philliskirk and you had winners like Phil Brown, Scott Green and Julian Darby already in the squad.
“We just needed that bit of magic. In came John McGinlay and we clicked, and then you had the youngsters like Alan Stubbs and Jason McAteer who flourished when Bruce Rioch came in.
“You had one or two local lads in there and the whole place was different.
“The team I saw the other week when I was down at Leeds wasn’t that bad, albeit it missed an astonishing number of chances.
“There is nothing to say that can’t be the same for Bolton right now but the next manager they name has got to be the right one.”
Source
