The Official Lennon Quote Bank

[CrazyHorse]

I didn't say owt at the time but I did think that re-signing Gudjohnsen would be a mistake. He's the best part of 50, has two broken legs and genuinely couldn't get in the stoke side four years ago.

I were wrong. He the man.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wa ... xt_season/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We’ve got a fair idea of what we want to do and how we’ll improve things. But we’re not making it for public consumption just yet. I want to take this club forward. There are aspects I like in terms with what I see in some of the players. I want to put my own stamp on it. But I’m concerned that my two best players over the 90 minutes {against Blackpool} were Adam Le Fondre and Barry Bannan. And they are two loan players. I am looking at the players we have and I need to get more out of them. Otherwise, we have decisions to make.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Pre-Norwich presser, https://twitter.com/OfficialBWFC/status ... 6569326594" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; et passim:

Away from home the Cardiff win was our best performance. I was thrilled. It is a glimpse of what we want.

Eidur has got stronger as the season has gone on which is pleasing. He is one of my best signings from my time as a manager.

Emile has been fantastic as well. The way he leads the line and brings other into play is magnificent.

Contract negotiations are ongoing. We've submitted offers to three players and are now waiting to hear back.

You look at your squad and the personnel you have available. I'm a fan of 3-5-2 and played in it for a number of years at Celtic.

We are buoyed by Monday's win. We want to be a top win [sic?] next season so Saturday's game will be a good test.

I've been aware of Alex Neil for a while. Norwich were a little bit hit and miss but he's steadied the ship. I think they'll go up.

I think Norwich have the best squad but you have to be able to manage it well and I think Alex is doing a fine job.

I really enjoyed watching Gary Hooper play at Celtic. One of my best signings for them. He's a great player.

It might be too early for Mark Davies. Craig Davies pulled up in training yesterday. We're waiting on scan results.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wa ... ws_Lennon/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Things have been a bit up and down this season but that’s understandable in a way. I know I talk about it a lot but when you factor in the loss of Mark Davies, Darren Pratley, Max Clayton, David Wheater – then you have Mark Davies and Adam Bogdan just coming back, selling Chung-Yong Lee in January, that is a huge loss to any team at this level. What we need to do now is build again for next season, avoid a slow start, and hopefully it will be better.

I like the three at the back; a lot of people raise their eyebrows at times when we play it. But what it does is allows me to play two centre forwards – a Heskey and Craig Davies, plus Eidur Gudjohnsen playing off those two. So while you might look at it and say it’s a defensive set-up, we’ve still got those three attack-minded players. Davies and Heskey play really well together too, and Eidur, well he’s just a genius.

{On Norwich}
It’s a difficult task because I still think Norwich have the strongest squad in the division. They have been there or thereabouts all season. Alex Neil has come in and settled them down and they have been very, very consistent. Obviously they are going for automatic promotion but we'll be doing our best to make sure they don't go home with anything.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wa ... y_poopers/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It’s important we finish strongly. I think now we’re relatively safe, so we can relax a little bit without looking back over our shoulder all the time. For me it’s job done. At one point we were looking at the play-offs but we had so many important injuries we had to get players in at short notice. That does affect consistency, but now we are starting to get players back – Mark Davies will be fit for the weekend – we are starting to look strong again. We will be dangerous for the likes of Norwich, Brentford and Bournemouth.

We want to put down a marker for what we want to do next season. The club got 59 points last season and we’d like to match that. It won’t be easy, but it’s a total I’d like to hit. We don’t fear anyone at home and the result at Cardiff will give us a massive psychological lift. I won’t have us say our season is up – we have got Bournemouth and Brentford to come and we want to spoil some parties. We have our own agenda.

{On the Bournemouth rescheduling}
We have to be as professional as we can. They’ve put the game against Bournemouth on a Monday night and if they think we’re going to go there and play second fiddle to anyone, they’d better think again.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Pre-Brentford presser, https://twitter.com/OfficialBWFC/status ... 5200700416" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; et passim

One consistent thing about us this season is that we've been inconsistent. We have to change that going forward.

We want to change things in the summer, but looking at the table if we'd have had three more wins we'd be in the top half.

We've lacked a bit of composure on the ball recently. We need to get that little bit of extra quality.

Emile Heskey has been great for us, but felt a little stiff so didn't start on Tuesday. He's in contention for Saturday.

It'll be a tough against Brentford. They're challenging for the play-offs. It'll be tough but we want to spoil the party.

We're hoping Mark Davies might be able to start but we'll have to wait and see.

We have to tread softly with Mark Davies. He makes us better. Now we need to make sure we can keep him on the pitch.

Barry Bannan is very happy here. You can see that from his performances. I like his style. He's a very good footballer.

We're looking for players who don't have bad injury-records and we're looking for quality. We have a good core in place already.

We've let ourselves down in the last minute of games and that needs to change next season. It's a weakness.

It's been a season of ifs and buts. We need to make sure it is not a case of 'What if' next season.

[Enoch]

Pre-Brentford presser, https://twitter.com/OfficialBWFC/status ... 5200700416" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; et passim

We have to change that going forward.

if we'd have had three more wins we'd be in the top half.

We need to get that little bit of extra quality.

He's in contention for Saturday.

It'll be tough.

we'll have to wait and see.

we need to make sure we can keep him on the pitch.

we're looking for quality.

We've let ourselves down.

It's been a season of ifs and buts.

Cracking.

If only the Gods were with us.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wa ... _Baptiste/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I haven't had chance to work with Alex [Baptiste] yet. He certainly will be here pre-season because he is our player. I want to have a good look at him because I have been impressed with what I've seen of him when I’ve watched Blackburn play this season. I think he could do a job for us but we won’t really know until we take a closer look.
Whether Baptiste is a right back or centre-half, it doesn't really matter. We will bring him in and have a look at him before we make a decision.
I do need options. We have been playing a back three because we haven’t had a bona fide right-back for the majority of the season. It is unfair to keep asking Josh Vela to play in that position. He is a far better midfield player. I don’t want to be in that position again next season.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wa ... _his_side/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We’ve got a mountain of work in terms of where we want to take this club. We’ve known that would be the case all along. We had to get over the line, to stay up, and we looked okay in November and December, then the injuries really hit us hard. It was so mix and match towards the end of the season – I don’t want to go through that scenario again. It is important we start our recruitment now to make us better and add to the core of good players we already have here.
Since January, we have had at least eight players out. At one stage we had 12. That has to change. Pre-season will be important in terms of a good level of fitness and we need more players who are accustomed to this Championship. A bit more experience and more quality.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wa ... xt_season/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are going to be changes, we need to make them if we are going to improve as a football club. We know what we have to do, we need to bring in players who are hungrier but also we need to get more out of the players who will stay with us. It is a huge challenge. Thankfully we kept our Championship position a few weeks ago but it’s been a disappointing season, no question about it.

[Worthy4England]

I think it's generally unfair to judge managers until they've had a couple of transfer windows. He's saying the right things - but then again so did most of the others over the last 8 years since Allardyce departed. The proof, as ever, will be in the pudding.

[Riviman]

NL quote "Don't worry about Trotter he's already gone" !!!! To a friend's son over the weekend

[bobo the clown]

NL quote "Don't worry about Trotter he's already gone" !!!! To a friend's son over the weekend

If that tums out to be untrue I shall hunt you down like a rabid dog .... and your mate ... and all the people you've ever known .... and a few you don't, just for good measure.

[Enoch]

NL quote "Don't worry about Trotter he's already gone" !!!! To a friend's son over the weekend

How indiscreet!

By one or the other.

Is the friend's son named Phil perchance?

[Riviman]

NL quote "Don't worry about Trotter he's already gone" !!!! To a friend's son over the weekend

How indiscreet!

By one or the other.

Is the friend's son named Phil perchance?

No

[Worthy4England]

I'm a bit worried about this. How will we actually know Trotter has gone? It's not like we'll suddenly look one short in midfield...I guess there might be a spare chair on the bench...

[boltonboris]

Mutual termination - We pay half and he finds a new club.

We've done it a few times.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wa ... _build_on/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We have rebuilding to do but it won’t happen overnight. What has struck me since being here is that people have tremendous pride in the town, and the club is a huge part of that. It’s a community club and we’ve made strides in trying to get the fans involved and feel connected to the club again. It’s traditionally one of the great old English teams and we want to be a part of that history going forward.
Fans have stayed with us through some bad times this season. Our home form has been excellent and that support has played a huge part in staying up this year. I played here myself in the late nineties and I know what the atmosphere can be like when it gets going. I want to tap into that.
I know the potential is here. It’s up to me to find the right recipe to make things right on the pitch and get us back up there again. There are some good, young players who have come through this season but the recruitment from here is very important.
It’s such an important part of a manager’s job nowadays. If we can get it right, I think we can be dark horses next season. We’ll be aiming for top 10 – anything on top of that is a bonus.
At this stage of the season [at Celtic] it was league titles and cup finals. I think the win at Cardiff more or less cemented our place in the Championship and from there we knew it was a case of building for next season.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wa ... ss_Lennon/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We have learned a lot as a backroom staff in the last few months. We recognise there has to be a sea-change in the mentality of the squad. It isn’t good. I want hungrier players. I want players who this club means something to. Winning and losing football games has got to mean more to them. We have to change it. And it will matter more to the players we bring in next season.
At the moment we have no money to spend. As it stands it will be Bosmans, maybe loans. In certain areas I’d like to spend. We’ll see what the next few weeks bring. I am very optimistic about the future. The wage bill has been slashed dramatically and I do feel there are players out there who would enhance us, make us better.
We’d also like to keep hold of those core players we already have here who’ve shown us how good they can be. I think we can sell the club, it’s an easy sell for some players. Finances will dictate some deals but in terms of attracting players it won’t be a major problem.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wa ... _business/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think if we can get a bit of movement going in the next few weeks it’ll prick people’s attention a bit and show people we mean business. The next few weeks will be really important. We know what type of player we want to bring in and have been working for a number of weeks now to get that ball rolling. I think you need a certain type in the Championship – and they are out there. It isn’t a hard sell to bring them to Bolton either.
I’m sure some of the players are glad this season is over but from my point of view I would have liked to work longer with some of the players who have been out injured. And that gives me a lot of positivity for next year. Clayton, Clough, Pratley, Wheater, Craig Davies, they are important players, but it’s keeping them healthy and on the pitch. I’m planning a long pre-season and I think that gives me the opportunity to really get some work into the players and make sure they come back fit.
[On fringe/loaned/young players] Whoever comes back in this summer will be in the group for pre-season. I want to sit down and talk. There will be players leaving, there will be, I’d imagine, bids for some of my players as well. We’ll consider that. But this summer is about what I can add to this squad, whether I can make that core better.

[thebish]

presumably, when he says "I think we can sell the club" - that's not a literal selling of the club?

what became of McGinlay's mystery news-to-come of incoming investors??

also - them's words that always make me nervous.. "We have rebuilding to do but it won’t happen overnight." They may be true - but they often sound like a laying down of an early marker to appeal back to should things not start well....

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

presumably, when he says "I think we can sell the club" - that's not a literal selling of the club?

In context, he was talking about "selling" it to potential players.

Also in the BN, this from Lennon on potential cash injections or takeovers or whatever:

I think there are talks ongoing, yes, but whether it materialises or not I cannot say at this stage. I’ll leave that to the people behind the scenes. It would be welcome, obviously, it would be helpful. But we don’t want to go down the road of throwing millions at it and it not working out. You need a certain type of player in the Championship to be successful.

[Bruce Rioja]

I'm perfectly happy to see Lennon under-promise and over-deliver.

[thebish]

I'm perfectly happy to see Lennon under-promise and over-deliver.

you and me both...

[Harry Genshaw]

I'm perfectly happy to see Lennon under-promise and over-deliver.

Hell yeah