Bolton Wanderers Forum The-Wanderer.co.uk

This guy is one weird bugger.

I loved his skills and energy and work rate, but loathed the fact that he was an accident waiting to happen and seemed to be on the edge of some catastrophe at all times.

He's a flawed genius, but, until 18m ago, he was OUR flawed genius.

We took him for probably half his value because of this. He'd fallen out with the Liverpool fans, he'd outrageously, spat at a Celtic fan in a European game. With us he spat at a Pompey player. Spitting is not right & can't be condoned, but he'd been kicked lumps off for the whole game and at least it was another player & not a fan !!

He was done for drink driving, had a womaniser reputation, dived ... or at least "exaggerated" the affect of fouls. He wound up opposition fans. He was accused of assaulting Fadiga's wife. The press were on Diouf-watch at all times and we lived day to day on edge with him.

But I still liked him.

He moved on & there is talk of dressing-room problems at Sunderland & someone suggested a knife appeareed at training on one occasion. He moved in the next window & joined his surrogate daddy at Blackburn. Again, talk of dressing room unrest, apparently in a fight with other players last week, causing problems in a night-club this week and watching the mighty whites take on both Stoke and Wet Spam. Watching US play Wet Spam while his own club were actualy playing 10 miles away !!

Plus, of course Banana-gate. Whatever was or wasn't said with the ball-boy last week his defence that the Everton fans chucked bananas at his is clearly bollox.

To be honest I think he has to leave England. The press are after him & fans know to wind him up.

Dioufy, I loved having you here ... it's been emotional.

I think you are dead on.

He was mental, but he was OUR mental. He spends more time at the Reebok these days than at Ewok!

There'd been a sense, from me and a lot of neutral observers I know, that Diouf was treated unfairly any time after his spat (ahem) with de Zeeuw. Anything he'd done was blown out of proportion more than any other player. A Lib Dem MP was quoted in the press as saying that, after unfounded allegations of spitting at Middlesbrough, Diouf should be deported. And a newspaper columnist, after his exaggeration won a penalty at Blackburn, demanded that what Diouf had done was clearly as bad as Rio Ferdinand missing a drugs test, and that Diouf should be banned for eight months. Despite Steven Gerrard getting off scot free for a dive that won a penalty at Sheffield United the week before.

There have been numerous lies spouted about him that seem to be treated as gospel now, because the reputation belies the facts. Such as the spitting at Birmingham fans, spitting at Middlesbrough fans, spitting at a tramp in a Manchester street as his car was being towed away - can you see a pattern forming here? There was also front page news that he demanded legal aid for his court case for the Middlesbrough lie, when he was actually offered it through his solicitor, who worked in partnership with the department that deal with Legal Aid.

He clearly doesn't help himself, though. He's said that he enjoys the bad boy reputation, but is a nice bloke. There has only ever been one story I remember seeing about his work in Senegal for charity, but the writer was surprised at how pleasant and friendly Diouf was. And you can understand why he rubs people up the wrong way.

But I agree that, if he wants any positivity out of football now, he needs to move away from here. There's another feeding frenzy on him now, and it ain't gonna get better for him.

His Hearts still with us.... His head however... who knows !!

screech powers wrote:His Hearts still with us.... His head however... who knows !!

I doubt even he does. Would love to hate the guy now especially playing for Blackburn, but his obvious love of Bolton and especially the fans virtually makes that impossible. I wish him the best but I think France is probably the place for him to continue his career.

He's clearly mental, but he's also misunderstood I think. The only things he's ever been found guilty of are the spitting (bad, but not that bad, whatever the "I'd rather be punched than spat at" brigade thinks) and the (undeniably very stupid) drink driving. Obviously he doesn't help himself, but with that pretty short rap sheet, there's no need for the pariah status he currently has.

I think he's a good guy really, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to see him in a Bolton shirt again.

Wish he hadn't fecked us over by telling everyone he was off when we were still fighting relegation though. I know he scored the goal that kept us up, but that was still a pretty bad way to treat the club whereby he is, to this day, still regarded as a God.

To keep it short... very flawed, very, very long way from genius...

It's surprising, and sad, to see how far Diouf's star has fallen in these last seven years. But it's not just because of his actions, or even the false allegations about him. The truth is, he's just not as good as he used to be.

Most amusing about all this is that he wanted to leave Bolton because his surrogate father had left.

He's now with his surrogate father but it seems the "magic" ain't there anymore.

Perhaps just perhaps Allardyce, Diouf, etc etc needed Bolton more than Bolton needed them.

William the White wrote:To keep it short... very flawed, very, very long way from genius...

I wouldn't touch him with the proverbial

Hes afcuking liability and his public 'i'm off' when we needed him and general sulking around turned it all sour for me

But, his ability is unquestionable

African Footballer of the Year (twice, I think) something Okocha never won

The bloke isn't world class, but only cos his heads screwed

Ability wise, he's as good as owt we've had

CAPSLOCK wrote:

William the White wrote:To keep it short... very flawed, very, very long way from genius...

I wouldn't touch him with the proverbial

Hes afcuking liability and his public 'i'm off' when we needed him and general sulking around turned it all sour for me

But, his ability is unquestionable

African Footballer of the Year (twice, I think) something Okocha never won

The bloke isn't world class, but only cos his heads screwed

Ability wise, he's as good as owt we've had

Indeed got the ability, lacks the mental application!

BWFC_Insane wrote:

CAPSLOCK wrote:

William the White wrote:To keep it short... very flawed, very, very long way from genius...

I wouldn't touch him with the proverbial

Hes afcuking liability and his public 'i'm off' when we needed him and general sulking around turned it all sour for me

But, his ability is unquestionable

African Footballer of the Year (twice, I think) something Okocha never won

The bloke isn't world class, but only cos his heads screwed

Ability wise, he's as good as owt we've had

Indeed got the ability, lacks the mental application!

I'd argue he was more of a tosspot than anything and question this so called ability!! Even average players do the stunning and unexpected now and then, Diouf was no different and he was one lazy feck to boot.
TBH I would not have him at a club at any level, the mans a dick!

Can't really agree with him being Lazy, sometimes he stood still after not getting decisions with his arms in the air, kind of Ronaldo-esque.. But he often ran himself into the ground for the cause and I maintain to this day, we have never had a player with a first touch like Diouf, back to goal, when the ball came into him, it stuck like glue..

BWFC_Insane wrote:Most amusing about all this is that he wanted to leave Bolton because his surrogate father had left.

He's now with his surrogate father but it seems the "magic" ain't there anymore.

Perhaps just perhaps Allardyce, Diouf, etc etc needed Bolton more than Bolton needed them.

How do you know?

Since he signed permanently for us, he played two seasons under Allardyce and scored 3 and 5 goals respectively.

Now, he's got one already this season. I don't think it's sticking my neck out to suggest he's capable of scoring at least two more.

Tombwfc wrote:

BWFC_Insane wrote:Most amusing about all this is that he wanted to leave Bolton because his surrogate father had left.

He's now with his surrogate father but it seems the "magic" ain't there anymore.

Perhaps just perhaps Allardyce, Diouf, etc etc needed Bolton more than Bolton needed them.

How do you know?

Since he signed permanently for us, he played two seasons under Allardyce and scored 3 and 5 goals respectively.

Now, he's got one already this season. I don't think it's sticking my neck out to suggest he's capable of scoring at least two more.

I was speaking more in terms of the "player-manager" relationship or not so much the relationship but more the whole Allardyce can manage Diouf and the fact Diouf loves him!

If you believe reports from some fans Diouf has said openly recently that he'd be keen for a return here but that its unlikely. Coupled with reports from the media and Blackburn fans that he is not exactly behaving himself at all there, it would seem once again the grass isn't greener when you leave Bolton!

In fact I'd say Diouf probably feels a bit daft. At Bolton he could get away with a LOT because he was adored by the ESL. Probably the only club he had any slack at whatsoever. His desire to "leave" prompted only a bid from Sunderland and he couldn't get near their team. Now he's at Blackburn and the evidence suggests he would rather not be.

He needed Bolton more than we needed him and personally I'd not have him back now.

Thing is, that when he said he wanted to leave he mentioned PSG, Atletico etc all 'chasing' him, and when none of them came in for him he would've looked stupid.

Now personally had he decided to stay then I would have welcomed him back with open arms, but to save face he had to accept the first bid that came in, which just happened to be from the biggest club in the history of the world.

Bruno wrote:Thing is, that when he said he wanted to leave he mentioned PSG, Atletico etc all 'chasing' him, and when none of them came in for him he would've looked stupid.

Now personally had he decided to stay then I would have welcomed him back with open arms, but to save face he had to accept the first bid that came in, which just happened to be from the biggest club in the history of the world.

Aye he made a big mis-judgement probably his agent ballsed it up for him. Going public was a bit silly.

I'd have been happy if he stayed but the truth was he'd barely performed for 2 seasons!

boltonboris wrote:Can't really agree with him being Lazy, sometimes he stood still after not getting decisions with his arms in the air, kind of Ronaldo-esque.. But he often ran himself into the ground for the cause and I maintain to this day, we have never had a player with a first touch like Diouf, back to goal, when the ball came into him, it stuck like glue..

But how many times did he drop to the ground for a free kick or penalty when he could have kept going? His last season especially was guilty of this.

Genius is a bit strong!

FaninOz wrote:Genius is a bit strong!

.... yep, but " ... rather highly talented player with a number of personality flaws" isn't a particularly fluent headline, is it ?