Should Phil Parkinson be sacked?

[Lennon'sEleven]

Not posted for a while, but compelled to weigh in here. Parkinson HAS to stay. No two ways about it for me. He has been immense.

I would be more than happy with this sequence of events (from the day he was appointed):

Season 1. Get us out of League 1 at the first time of asking
Season 2. Do not get relegated. Don't care how.
Season 3. Be safe from relegation with five games to play. Don't care how.
Season 4. Be effectively safe from relegation with 10 games to play while playing some nice football.
Season 5. Challenge for playoffs. Don't care how.

He is absolutely nailing his job. Yes, Burton was a low. Yes, he has been inflexible with style. I am sure he will learn from that (even the most stubborn can learn). But he has done it. Everything we could have reasonably expected when he joined. Without a penny in fees spent. Amazing.

I'll tell you what, if we let him go he will have no shortage of job offers whatsoever. Well done Parky. So far, so good. We should do all we can to keep you.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Welcome back! It's a fine Five-Year Plan.

Just a quick one: very few teams are safe with 10 games to go. Even this season, with its low relegation total, with 10 to go only the top six were safe; even entering April, only the top 10 were. But yes, if we use the loose term "effectively", you're looking at mid-March, unless you're still looking up the table. Even with five games to play, 11th-placed Preston were only 6pts off the playoffs - and they took it to the last day.

When teams were safe:
http://hasithappened.net/happened/ts152 ... ohappen__2

In other words, I guess we're saying "be Norwich"... mathematically safe on 7 Apr, mathematically denied the play-offs on 14 Apr. And although it's something we aspire to, I reckon their fans have hovered between frustration and boredom for most of the calendar year; watching James Maddison stroke it around might not have been enough to keep them chipper.

It's an odd thing – we just haven't had that many mid-table seasons. 2007/08 to 2010/11 we finished 16, 13, 14, 14 in the top flight but some of those were fairly frantic rearguards (and the last was a push for the top eight that collapsed). 2013/14 we finished 14th, 2014/15 18th but the former was a curate's egg (record-breakingly bad start, strong Nov/Dec, 1-7 at Reading, then 7 wins in 11 Feb-Apr) and the latter was Lennon's first part-season - Dougie-killing bad start, recovery, plummet after switching to back three.

Maybe we're due a nice quiet season someday soon, and maybe that'd be fine...

[Lennon'sEleven]

DSB - You're right - this is indeed why I put "effectively" in, as opposed to mathematically. I would love to get to the final quarter of the season with enough going on below us to think we should be fine. Dull though that might be.

Maybe that's another plus of PP? He has delivered two superb final day experiences....

[BWFC_Insane]

Not posted for a while, but compelled to weigh in here. Parkinson HAS to stay. No two ways about it for me. He has been immense.

I would be more than happy with this sequence of events (from the day he was appointed):

Season 1. Get us out of League 1 at the first time of asking
Season 2. Do not get relegated. Don't care how.
Season 3. Be safe from relegation with five games to play. Don't care how.
Season 4. Be effectively safe from relegation with 10 games to play while playing some nice football.
Season 5. Challenge for playoffs. Don't care how.

He is absolutely nailing his job. Yes, Burton was a low. Yes, he has been inflexible with style. I am sure he will learn from that (even the most stubborn can learn). But he has done it. Everything we could have reasonably expected when he joined. Without a penny in fees spent. Amazing.

I'll tell you what, if we let him go he will have no shortage of job offers whatsoever. Well done Parky. So far, so good. We should do all we can to keep you.

This. A lot of deluded Bolton fans on social media clearly think we're a big fish still. They don't see the reality that we were days from admin, and went down from this division with a 26M wage bill rock bottom. Since then the wage bill has been more than halved, we've sold 11M worth of players and not spent a single penny. And have gone up, and then survived.

Anyone who doesn't think such a result under those circumstances is Big Sam levels of managerial genius, wants their heads testing. I'm not saying Parky is as good as Big Sam. But the results he has brought are as good as the ones early in Sam's reign.

[Bijou Bob]

I wonder how many of those who want their heads testing, will buy season tickets for another 40 odd games of PP stylee football? Ken's problem is that he has to make a decision prior to knowing that figure. Does he allow a manager with a very poor record of signings to blow our summer budget (If we have one)? He was very critical some weeks ago in one of his missives and will have to be mindful that signing a big target man early doors will lead to a lot of loud groans and possibly a fall in ticket sales. It's a conundrum.

[Lennon'sEleven]

I wonder how many of those who want their heads testing, will buy season tickets for another 40 odd games of PP stylee football? Ken's problem is that he has to make a decision prior to knowing that figure. Does he allow a manager with a very poor record of signings to blow our summer budget (If we have one)? He was very critical some weeks ago in one of his missives and will have to be mindful that signing a big target man early doors will lead to a lot of loud groans and possibly a fall in ticket sales. It's a conundrum.

We'll get Madine back in on loan early next season.

[BWFC_Insane]

I wonder how many of those who want their heads testing, will buy season tickets for another 40 odd games of PP stylee football? Ken's problem is that he has to make a decision prior to knowing that figure. Does he allow a manager with a very poor record of signings to blow our summer budget (If we have one)? He was very critical some weeks ago in one of his missives and will have to be mindful that signing a big target man early doors will lead to a lot of loud groans and possibly a fall in ticket sales. It's a conundrum.

1) How many of the "I'm not coming back till Megson/Freedman/Coyle etc goes" actually went or came back?
2) Style of football is an absolute nonsense. Sunday was the best game I can remember. We didn't play fancy football. Get a target man, get better players and everyone will enjoy it regardless. Nobody bemoaned the fact that our goals on Sunday all came via throwing the ball into the box, or going long.
3) Very poor record of signings? Bollocks. He's had nothing to play with. Some have worked out, some haven't. The fact he signed Henry who saved our season makes that statement utter nonsense in itself.
4) Have West Brom fans been more entertained this year since Pulis went? Have Stoke fans? Ultimately what fans want is success. Parky has brought success. He's the only manager to improve our league position after his first two full years since Sam. He has more than earned a chance to take it on.
5) Listening to spotty oiks on twitter is never a good strategy for a club to follow.

[Bijou Bob]

I wonder how many of those who want their heads testing, will buy season tickets for another 40 odd games of PP stylee football? Ken's problem is that he has to make a decision prior to knowing that figure. Does he allow a manager with a very poor record of signings to blow our summer budget (If we have one)? He was very critical some weeks ago in one of his missives and will have to be mindful that signing a big target man early doors will lead to a lot of loud groans and possibly a fall in ticket sales. It's a conundrum.

3) Very poor record of signings? Bollocks. He's had nothing to play with. Some have worked out, some haven't. The fact he signed Henry who saved our season makes that statement utter nonsense in itself.

I'm intrigued. Which of his signings were a resounding success then??

Clough? Er, no. Allegedly a fall out so bad, Clough's dad has said he will never play for the club again.

Walker? Less than 90 minutes of football for a lad with pace and strength.

Noone? Didn't play him enough to tell

Buckley? Sweet Jesus.......

Ameobi? Dire for the latter part of the season and contributed little aside from a great goal against Bristol

Alf? Poor return of goals and played in a system which just didn't suit him - so why sign him?

Henry? I'll give you that one

Armstrong? Played the bloke out of position rendering him completely ineffective........until he went to Blackburn.....

Full backs - Even he couldn't decide if he thought they were good enough to play week in, week out.

I make that at a guess, around 70 grand per week on a raft of signings, just one of whom proved to be a sound punt. If he doesn't improve his success rate this summer, next season doesn't look very hopeful does it, given that he will be looking for twice as many signings?! Some of those signings may have been foisted on him by Ken and his agent son, granted.

I'm not calling for him to be sacked, I just don't think he's the man to take us forward or to give our summer transfer funds to,despite the fact that he got us promoted (By the skin of our teeth and the failings of others) and kept us up.Time will tell.

[BWFC_Insane]

I wonder how many of those who want their heads testing, will buy season tickets for another 40 odd games of PP stylee football? Ken's problem is that he has to make a decision prior to knowing that figure. Does he allow a manager with a very poor record of signings to blow our summer budget (If we have one)? He was very critical some weeks ago in one of his missives and will have to be mindful that signing a big target man early doors will lead to a lot of loud groans and possibly a fall in ticket sales. It's a conundrum.

3) Very poor record of signings? Bollocks. He's had nothing to play with. Some have worked out, some haven't. The fact he signed Henry who saved our season makes that statement utter nonsense in itself.

I'm intrigued. Which of his signings were a resounding success then??

Clough? Er, no. Allegedly a fall out so bad, Clough's dad has said he will never play for the club again.

Walker? Less than 90 minutes of football for a lad with pace and strength.

Noone? Didn't play him enough to tell

Buckley? Sweet Jesus.......

Ameobi? Dire for the latter part of the season and contributed little aside from a great goal against Bristol

Alf? Poor return of goals and played in a system which just didn't suit him - so why sign him?

Henry? I'll give you that one

Armstrong? Played the bloke out of position rendering him completely ineffective........until he went to Blackburn.....

Full backs - Even he couldn't decide if he thought they were good enough to play week in, week out.

I make that at a guess, around 70 grand per week on a raft of signings, just one of whom proved to be a sound punt. If he doesn't improve his success rate this summer, next season doesn't look very hopeful does it, given that he will be looking for twice as many signings?! Some of those signings may have been foisted on him by Ken and his agent son, granted.

I'm not calling for him to be sacked, I just don't think he's the man to take us forward or to give our summer transfer funds to,despite the fact that he got us promoted (By the skin of our teeth and the failings of others) and kept us up.Time will tell.

Clough was a last minute take who you can get. He clearly wasn't on form and arguable whether he's really championship quality.

Little a good signing. Not a great defender but certainly contributed.
Robinson a good loan signing.
Henry - a mastestroke
Wilbraham - saved us when it mattered, probably cost a grand a week or something ridiculous.
Le Fondre - Bought him to play off Madine, had to change systems early in the season. Then played them together in our only away win. Then Madine was sold....


As I say when you're paying peanuts you will have hits and misses. I don't think you can call anything "disastrous" when you're one of the lowest budgets in the league. Darby perhaps the worst misjudgement.

Armstrong was played on the wing at Barnsley too in the championship. He scored goals in league one. So did Clough. So did Vela. There is a quality gap you know!

There is no evidence what PP might do with some decent backing and funding in place. So far he's been firefighting with nowt. And done a rather tasty job.

[Hoboh]

It is such a difficult decision now. I wouldn't blame Ken or whoever else might come in either way.

One on the one hand Parky has worked miracles and totally deserves to continue. And if there isn't substantial investment, it seems there are very few who could perform miracles on what will be a 23rd-24th place budget to keep us up again.

On the other if we secure investment and really want to progress and try and challenge at the top end of this league, as any substantial investor would surely demand, has Parky shown any signs that he is the man to do a Neil Warnock, or a David Wagner? Given our budget, even with investment given FFP, would only be enough just to be competitive? Surely the answer is "no"?

Actually if I was in that position as I suspect would be the case, Ken would have to go.

Depends, on whether they buy the whole thing or not. Many investors may prefer a shared risk at this stage. But also, a sensible investor may want to keep Ken around to run the show as Ken has clearly shown an ability to do that, if not as yet, raise the necessary funding to secure the future.

I can see KA acting as CEO under an owner as being highly likely. Especially a foreign owner.

Get out of it! Ken is interested in Kens bank balance, it just so happens he reckons BWFC is going to be his golden goose, sod all to do with football.
Hell I wish I'd had a spare £1 at the time and a decent solicited and adviser and now wanting £30 million, I'd even pay the tax due on that before sodding off to some nice warm place overseas.

[BWFC_Insane]

It is such a difficult decision now. I wouldn't blame Ken or whoever else might come in either way.

One on the one hand Parky has worked miracles and totally deserves to continue. And if there isn't substantial investment, it seems there are very few who could perform miracles on what will be a 23rd-24th place budget to keep us up again.

On the other if we secure investment and really want to progress and try and challenge at the top end of this league, as any substantial investor would surely demand, has Parky shown any signs that he is the man to do a Neil Warnock, or a David Wagner? Given our budget, even with investment given FFP, would only be enough just to be competitive? Surely the answer is "no"?

Actually if I was in that position as I suspect would be the case, Ken would have to go.

Depends, on whether they buy the whole thing or not. Many investors may prefer a shared risk at this stage. But also, a sensible investor may want to keep Ken around to run the show as Ken has clearly shown an ability to do that, if not as yet, raise the necessary funding to secure the future.

I can see KA acting as CEO under an owner as being highly likely. Especially a foreign owner.

Get out of it! Ken is interested in Kens bank balance, it just so happens he reckons BWFC is going to be his golden goose, sod all to do with football.
Hell I wish I'd had a spare £1 at the time and a decent solicited and adviser and now wanting £30 million, I'd even pay the tax due on that before sodding off to some nice warm place overseas.

He's a savvy businessman who will make his money out of us. Yes. But if he sells to some rich Arab would you not want that savvy knowledgeable bloke running the club? I know I would. I agree he's in it to make money. But then nobody else has been around to save us.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Wow, the heady rush of reprieve from death's door, heh?
Met his objectives; Manager of the season!!! - this is all Delusion driven by a mass release of endorphins. You'll get my drift when we're lying bottom of the Championship next year after yet another record breaking start to a season.

...and just to be clear, I'm positively saying Yes, Sack Him. Now is the perfect time. He got very very very lucky with that last game. As was stated before the last matches started, and now seemingly consigned to the history bin, every other relegation rival would have given their right arms for our run-in compared to theirs, and he still only just managed to snatch victory from ignominious defeat at the last possible moment.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I wonder how many of those who want their heads testing, will buy season tickets for another 40 odd games of PP stylee football? Ken's problem is that he has to make a decision prior to knowing that figure. Does he allow a manager with a very poor record of signings to blow our summer budget (If we have one)? He was very critical some weeks ago in one of his missives and will have to be mindful that signing a big target man early doors will lead to a lot of loud groans and possibly a fall in ticket sales. It's a conundrum.

We'll get Madine back in on loan early next season.

I really, really, really fxcking hope not. That won't be icing on a cake, more like Novichok on a door-handle. But I suspect that's what we're in for.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

I wonder how many of those who want their heads testing, will buy season tickets for another 40 odd games of PP stylee football? Ken's problem is that he has to make a decision prior to knowing that figure. Does he allow a manager with a very poor record of signings to blow our summer budget (If we have one)? He was very critical some weeks ago in one of his missives and will have to be mindful that signing a big target man early doors will lead to a lot of loud groans and possibly a fall in ticket sales. It's a conundrum.

We'll get Madine back in on loan early next season.

I really, really, really fxcking hope not. That won't be icing on a cake, more like Novichok on a door-handle. But I suspect that's what we're in for.

The really tragic thing here is that we can't afford Madine now. Fcuking shocking when put in that context

[Harry Genshaw]

No matter how he did it, he did it. His remit for me was to keep us up. Getting lucky in August, December or May is irrelevant he did all we asked of him

[Prufrock]

His "aim" was to keep us up but not many thought it was anything other than a huge ask, one he pulled off. He gets a lot of credit for that from me.

Sure at one point it looked like we'd be well clear, but if he'd managed that he genuinely would've been a manager year of the contender for me.

[Spartan2]

To put it into my experiences: if I'd only just managed to deliver a project within timeframe and budget after making a number of decisions that caused problems throughout its lifecycle, I'd expect that to be brought up in my annual review and reflect my bonus or even position going forwards.

But what if it were your boss who made the decisions that caused enormous problems for your project and you still managed to deliver it. Should that reflect badly on you? The opposite I think.

[BWFC_Insane]

Wow, the heady rush of reprieve from death's door, heh?
Met his objectives; Manager of the season!!! - this is all Delusion driven by a mass release of endorphins. You'll get my drift when we're lying bottom of the Championship next year after yet another record breaking start to a season.

...and just to be clear, I'm positively saying Yes, Sack Him. Now is the perfect time. He got very very very lucky with that last game. As was stated before the last matches started, and now seemingly consigned to the history bin, every other relegation rival would have given their right arms for our run-in compared to theirs, and he still only just managed to snatch victory from ignominious defeat at the last possible moment.

What you aren't accounting for is that survival was against the odds from the start. And our odds got worse as things went on.

The rest of the football world (or the tiny part that cares) is talking about what a miracle it was that Bolton in the mess they are managed to survive given everything stacked against them. Whereas some (deluded?) Bolton fans seem to think we should have strolled to safety playing silky football.

Its like Huddersfield surviving in the premiership. Its a huge achievement, however you end up doing it.

Sure we could have made it more comfortable. Sure mistakes were made by Parkinson, the players and the owner. Come August though none of that matters as we'll have another crack at it. Hopefully with some sort of financial backing this time.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

3.) Style of play. Neil Warnock has a very pragmatic style, and he has just done what any investor would want our manager to do, on a medium budget like we would have (assuming this magical benefactor exists).

Would an investor not look at Warnock and reach the conclusion that Parky could very well emulate that given the same resources over a couple of seasons?

There seems to be an idea that Warnock crafted promotion on a shoestring. Might be worth pointing out he bought Madine for £6m plus add-ons and played him for 505 minutes, which works out at £11,881 per minute. Also, according to football-finance expert Swiss Ramble:

[BWFC_Insane]

3.) Style of play. Neil Warnock has a very pragmatic style, and he has just done what any investor would want our manager to do, on a medium budget like we would have (assuming this magical benefactor exists).

Would an investor not look at Warnock and reach the conclusion that Parky could very well emulate that given the same resources over a couple of seasons?

There seems to be an idea that Warnock crafted promotion on a shoestring. Might be worth pointing out he bought Madine for £6m plus add-ons and played him for 505 minutes, which works out at £11,881 per minute. Also, according to football-finance expert Swiss Ramble:

I don't think he did it on a shoestring...you don't go up on a shoestring anymore. Even the more frugal teams have invested to be up there.