Booze after the boos against the Blues ? 3 May 2014

[BWFC_Insane]

at the risk of re-opening and going over the entire debate again, what has caused most of the disappointment/ frustration was the point that we came down in as good a shape, form and playing staff wise, as any relegated club could hope to have - we didn't come down having been tonked every week or then see our squad stripped. so I get why we didnt have a complete overhaul and am still a bit unsure why we made such a hash of it.

of course what has happened subsequently, FFP and our failure to build on the relative advantages we had, means we are now in the overhaul mode. I share what others have said and see little prospect under our current custodian of competing anywhere near the right end of the table, nor playing in a way that provides anything other than the very occasional flash of emotion, excitement or entertainment. We are in the epoch of 'meh', so strap yourselves in.

Whens the thread on predictions / realistic performance targets for next season opening then ?

But on reflection, in hindsight, we didn't did we? We had a team who was pretty much tonked every week in the Premiership. Especially at the start where the damage was done.

We thought we had a strong squad, but we didn't. Our better players were and are injury prone or actually injured still. Up front we had an ageing striker who didn't score goals with NGog and a 3M player who we now know is a million miles off leading the line for a promotion hungry side.

At the back we had a collection of misfits who hadn't been up to basic defending in the top flight, and still, most definitely weren't in the league below.

It is a fairly academic argument but my view is the fact that we've hardly been able to sell any players from our squad suggests that we didn't hold a squad full of talent and gems, certainly not in demand ones as I think it is fairly nailed down that we'd have accepted offers for several of the squad should they have arrived. We lost Alonso on a free and he's playing at a bottom six premiership club. Apart from that I don't see our players being in demand and the others that have left are not playing at a level higher than the championship apart from NGog, I guess sitting on a premiership club's bench!

[Dr Hotdog]

at the risk of re-opening and going over the entire debate again, what has caused most of the disappointment/ frustration was the point that we came down in as good a shape, form and playing staff wise, as any relegated club could hope to have - we didn't come down having been tonked every week or then see our squad stripped. so I get why we didnt have a complete overhaul and am still a bit unsure why we made such a hash of it.

of course what has happened subsequently, FFP and our failure to build on the relative advantages we had, means we are now in the overhaul mode. I share what others have said and see little prospect under our current custodian of competing anywhere near the right end of the table, nor playing in a way that provides anything other than the very occasional flash of emotion, excitement or entertainment. We are in the epoch of 'meh', so strap yourselves in.

Whens the thread on predictions / realistic performance targets for next season opening then ?

But on reflection, in hindsight, we didn't did we? We had a team who was pretty much tonked every week in the Premiership. Especially at the start where the damage was done.

We thought we had a strong squad, but we didn't. Our better players were and are injury prone or actually injured still. Up front we had an ageing striker who didn't score goals with NGog and a 3M player who we now know is a million miles off leading the line for a promotion hungry side.

At the back we had a collection of misfits who hadn't been up to basic defending in the top flight, and still, most definitely weren't in the league below.

It is a fairly academic argument but my view is the fact that we've hardly been able to sell any players from our squad suggests that we didn't hold a squad full of talent and gems, certainly not in demand ones as I think it is fairly nailed down that we'd have accepted offers for several of the squad should they have arrived. We lost Alonso on a free and he's playing at a bottom six premiership club. Apart from that I don't see our players being in demand and the others that have left are not playing at a level higher than the championship apart from NGog, I guess sitting on a premiership club's bench!

Got to take a bit of umbrage to the Alonso comment. He signed on a Bosman for a team who had just qualified for the UEFA Cup in Italy, a team who are currently 5th or 6th in Serie A. He can't get in the team because the club captain has held down the left-back position for almost a decade. It might be fact that he's currently playing for a club in the bottom six in the Premiership, but in my opinion that's not a solid enough stick to beat him with.

[BWFC_Insane]

at the risk of re-opening and going over the entire debate again, what has caused most of the disappointment/ frustration was the point that we came down in as good a shape, form and playing staff wise, as any relegated club could hope to have - we didn't come down having been tonked every week or then see our squad stripped. so I get why we didnt have a complete overhaul and am still a bit unsure why we made such a hash of it.

of course what has happened subsequently, FFP and our failure to build on the relative advantages we had, means we are now in the overhaul mode. I share what others have said and see little prospect under our current custodian of competing anywhere near the right end of the table, nor playing in a way that provides anything other than the very occasional flash of emotion, excitement or entertainment. We are in the epoch of 'meh', so strap yourselves in.

Whens the thread on predictions / realistic performance targets for next season opening then ?

But on reflection, in hindsight, we didn't did we? We had a team who was pretty much tonked every week in the Premiership. Especially at the start where the damage was done.

We thought we had a strong squad, but we didn't. Our better players were and are injury prone or actually injured still. Up front we had an ageing striker who didn't score goals with NGog and a 3M player who we now know is a million miles off leading the line for a promotion hungry side.

At the back we had a collection of misfits who hadn't been up to basic defending in the top flight, and still, most definitely weren't in the league below.

It is a fairly academic argument but my view is the fact that we've hardly been able to sell any players from our squad suggests that we didn't hold a squad full of talent and gems, certainly not in demand ones as I think it is fairly nailed down that we'd have accepted offers for several of the squad should they have arrived. We lost Alonso on a free and he's playing at a bottom six premiership club. Apart from that I don't see our players being in demand and the others that have left are not playing at a level higher than the championship apart from NGog, I guess sitting on a premiership club's bench!

Got to take a bit of umbrage to the Alonso comment. He signed on a Bosman for a team who had just qualified for the UEFA Cup in Italy, a team who are currently 5th or 6th in Serie A. He can't get in the team because the club captain has held down the left-back position for almost a decade. It might be fact that he's currently playing for a club in the bottom six in the Premiership, but in my opinion that's not a solid enough stick to beat him with.

I'm not beating him. I'm saying aside from him, nobody we had has been in significant demand, and those that have left have hardly gone on to prove they were good enough to lead us back up.

[Prufrock]

Read this .... it seems our view of our own malaise is not uncommon.

Read what?

This.

http://www.tiredandweary.co.uk/2014/04/ ... ngham-city" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fckg hell. Do I have to spoon feed you ???

I got stuck first sentence....nil pois...no peas??? I'm confused are we blaming Freedman for the pea quality now? I want to be on message if we are.

This comment made me laugh

"Said it before don’t think LC would have done any better with any money. He went through 5 mill at Town, bought 3 decent players out of 52, his random team selections were astonishing culminating in him obsessing with one upfront which failed every time. We turned countless wins into draws and in the end I think he was just guessing. The end for him was playing one upfront in the play off final v Peterborough using a young lad on loan called Benike Afobe on his own. Who did he leave on the bench ? Jordan Rhodes, who’d only scored 33 goals that season ! Unforgiveable and I’m afraid then he’d been found out. Good luck for Saturday and without LC next season you’ll be fine"

Lee Clark is Dan!

[bobo the clown]

^^^ Yep .... never heard of that of course, but actually benching Jordan Rhodes for Afobe in a vital match. You do sometimes get what you deserve.

[Riviman]

Extended highlights (!!) to be shown on BBC on the Football league programme, Saturday night:
http://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/article/bolt ... 20747.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?

[LeverEnd]

^^^ Yep .... never heard of that of course, but actually benching Jordan Rhodes for Afobe in a vital match. You do sometimes get what you deserve.

There was a lot of outrage about Clark's sacking at Hudds after that long unbeaten run, but a very sensible Hudds fan mate of mine was right behind it. Said he should have won a lot more games and he pissed a lot of cash up the wall.
His interviews actually make me thankful we've got Douglas.

[Prufrock]

He always sounds border-line suicidal.

[LeverEnd]

He always sounds border-line suicidal.

I know. All that soul searching on the verge of tears is tiresome.

[Dr.Karl]

Extended highlights (!!) to be shown on BBC on the Football league programme, Saturday night:
http://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/article/bolt ... 20747.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?

That'll get the wavering crowd in!

[Vertigo]

On another note, anything to see in or around town?

[Armchair Wanderer]

On another note, anything to see in or around town?

As someone who doesn't live in Bolton I'd say try the pies, meat and potato pies always used to be a highlight of a visit to Bolton. How are you finding England?

[SmokinFrazier]

at the risk of re-opening and going over the entire debate again, what has caused most of the disappointment/ frustration was the point that we came down in as good a shape, form and playing staff wise, as any relegated club could hope to have - we didn't come down having been tonked every week or then see our squad stripped. so I get why we didnt have a complete overhaul and am still a bit unsure why we made such a hash of it.

of course what has happened subsequently, FFP and our failure to build on the relative advantages we had, means we are now in the overhaul mode. I share what others have said and see little prospect under our current custodian of competing anywhere near the right end of the table, nor playing in a way that provides anything other than the very occasional flash of emotion, excitement or entertainment. We are in the epoch of 'meh', so strap yourselves in.

Whens the thread on predictions / realistic performance targets for next season opening then ?

But on reflection, in hindsight, we didn't did we? We had a team who was pretty much tonked every week in the Premiership. Especially at the start where the damage was done.

We didn't get 'tonked every week', we put in some good performances over the course of the season. We played very well against QPR, Everton, Liverpool, Stoke and others, and we would have stayed up had we been able win the last game of the season. That was under Coyle too, so if he was a poor manager who deserved to be sacked, what exactly was the squad capable of in better hands?

The one problem we've had in the last few seasons is poor management. Coyle was poor and, remarkably, we managed to appoint someone who is far worse. If Freedman had that same squad in the Premier League for a full season, I think we'd win maybe 2 or 3 games and that's about it.

We thought we had a strong squad, but we didn't. Our better players were and are injury prone or actually injured still. Up front we had an ageing striker who didn't score goals with NGog and a 3M player who we now know is a million miles off leading the line for a promotion hungry side.

At the back we had a collection of misfits who hadn't been up to basic defending in the top flight, and still, most definitely weren't in the league below.

We do have a problem with a lack of quality up front, although I stand by what I said about Sordell potentially being the answer to that, but that's the only problem within our squad. Bogdan in goal, a defence of Baptiste, Wheater, Ream and Tierney, a midfield of Chungy, Medo, Spearing, Davies and Eagles, and Sordell up front is not a bad team for this league. It simply isn't. We play some atrocious football but the root of that problem isn't with the players but the manager who doesn't know how to utilise the quality he's got.

We came down with a good squad and we still have a good squad. However, you could have a Ferrari racing against a field of 1982 Ford's but if Stevie Wonder is behind the wheel of the Ferrari, it isn't winning a thing.

[BWFC_Insane]

We do have a problem with a lack of quality up front, although I stand by what I said about Sordell potentially being the answer to that, but that's the only problem within our squad. Bogdan in goal, a defence of Baptiste, Wheater, Ream and Tierney, a midfield of Chungy, Medo, Spearing, Davies and Eagles, and Sordell up front is not a bad team for this league. It simply isn't. We play some atrocious football but the root of that problem isn't with the players but the manager who doesn't know how to utilise the quality he's got.

We came down with a good squad and we still have a good squad. However, you could have a Ferrari racing against a field of 1982 Ford's but if Stevie Wonder is behind the wheel of the Ferrari, it isn't winning a thing.

Well I was talking about what we came down with. And I totally disagree. You're putting names on paper, but for a start two of that team have barely been available for selection this season.

We had a good side when we won the league with 99 points. A very good side. We came down with it but for the second tier we had real quality. Todd wasn't a good manager but the quality of the players shone through nevertheless.

The group we came down with were not a patch on that side. There were not two goalscorers like McGinlay and Blake. Nor consistently tough defenders like Taggart and Fairclough. We didn't have the defence opening quality of Thompson and Sellars.

On paper when we came down I thought we had a good side. I thought we'd have too much quality for this division. But when I look at how players actually performed under two managers and how so few of them have had any external interest, and look at other sides who have done well in this division I just realise how mentally, physically and technically weak the squad we came down with were.

[bobo the clown]

Fckg hell. Every thread on here .... every single one .... ends up with you two arguing about why Coyle was a tit and Freedman even worse. Give it a fckg break. At least keep it where it belongs.

[Worthy4England]

Fckg hell. Every thread on here .... every single one .... ends up with you two arguing about why Coyle was a tit and Freedman even worse. Give it a fckg break. At least keep it where it belongs.

Yeah - but I think we should be told why SF has gone 4-5-1? I thought the only way to go was 4-4-2.

[BWFC_Insane]

Fckg hell. Every thread on here .... every single one .... ends up with you two arguing about why Coyle was a tit and Freedman even worse. Give it a fckg break. At least keep it where it belongs.

That thread is talking about which towns are shitholes.....

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Bogdan in goal, a defence of Baptiste, Wheater, Ream and Tierney, a midfield of Chungy, Medo, Spearing, Davies and Eagles, and Sordell up front is not a bad team for this league.

Thought you were all about the 4-4-2?

Anyway, I think you and BWFCi should meet after the Blues game and thrash it out. I reckon you might fall in love.

[jaffka]

Fckg hell. Every thread on here .... every single one .... ends up with you two arguing about why Coyle was a tit and Freedman even worse. Give it a fckg break. At least keep it where it belongs.

That thread is talking about which towns are shitholes.....

He was basically saying go and be boring elsewhere with your oft repeat boring opinion which is portrayed as absolute fact.

[Andy Waller]

Can we get this thread back on track?

WAHAY!! and/or PHWOORRRR!!