Reasons to be cheerful. At home to Cambridge Sat 18th Jan 3'clock.

[Bertie Wooster]

It's mob bollocks.

Really ?, not loyal football fans who pay a decent amount of money and time to watch absolute drivel week after week. Fans who have put up with watching shite boring football for over 12 months and have simply had enough.

So I assume with you its a case of the fans just put up & shut up ?

[GhostoftheBok]

I've no issue with my view being seen as "old fashioned."

If fans don't want to be treated like customers they need to stop talking about the football like it's a trip to the cinema.

You are part of the club and a key part of the process of winning games. Everyone who has ever kicked a ball professionally will tell you it's easier to play well with backing and harder with barking.

Every fan accepts that's true, until they don't get the results they're wanting and then it's complete nonsense and the players should show up regardless.

The reality is that a section of the fanbase would rather vent and negatively impact the team than suck it up and make us more likely to win games. For me that's piss poor.

Evatt should have been sacked because he makes the team less likely to win. Fans who want him gone for that reason responding to it by making the team less likely to win is ironic.

[BWFC_Insane]

Rubbish - why should the paying Bolton fans stay silent if the product on the pitch is abysmal - people paying £30 to just sit there bored to tears watching slow, turgid, boring sideways & backwards shite.

The fcuking melts are on the pitch and in the dugout, its been absolutely shite now for over 12 months with zero signs of improvement, they (the players) and he (Evatt) deserve all they get & if the supporters want to tell them its shite they should have every right to do so.

When clubs say fans are customers the fans get upset and then when the club needs support they act like customers.

Like I said. Melts.

Supporters should be just that. Whistle to whistle you get behind them and do your part to try and help performances.

Anything less is a tantrum.

Sorry but no. We’ve long been customers in football. Treated like customers. That’s not unique to Bolton it’s across the board.

But the idea that people who spend money to go and watch should always be happy clappers is for the birds - I used to think like that tbh. But it’s not realistic for 2025. Or the last decade and a half.

Clubs want to nickel and dime people - they need to in order to survive. They want and enjoy the fans being onside but then the other side to that is when they are not.

Fans not only have a right to make their views heard (within sensible and legal limits of course) but I think they should be encouraged to.

Fans support the club - that doesn’t mean they have to always applaud it.

Until Evatt goes I hate it. So anything that hastens his departure is a positive for me. And thousands of others. People have a right to disagree but that’s where we are.

If Sharon feels that supporters should back the team unquestioningly then she should offer up all the content for free that used to be, hold regular open fan forums with the fans and manager, be open about stuff and keep fans informed. Because that is the contract - you can’t run it like a business as she is then complain when the customers are unhappy with the product on offer.

[Worthy4England]

It's mob bollocks.

Really ?, not loyal football fans who pay a decent amount of money and time to watch absolute drivel week after week. Fans who have put up with watching shite boring football for over 12 months and have simply had enough.

So I assume with you its a case of the fans just put up & shut up ?

It's easy for folks to forget, football is expensive - the average weekly wage for Bolton after tax is probably about £520. If you chug half of that on rent/rates and the like, you're down to £260. A football ticket is between £17-30 usually, add in couple of pints and car parking/transport, then our "melts" can be spending 10-15% of their weekly disposable on watching shite served up for 90 minutes. If I spent another 10% on a ruby after the match, and it was shit, you bet I'm going to mention it and the folks making that probably aren't earning six figure salaries that these spoiled brats are.

[Worthy4England]

I've no issue with my view being seen as "old fashioned."

Brill. I'm expecting 442 tonight. Get it in the fecking mixxxxxxxu.

[GhostoftheBok]

Really ?, not loyal football fans who pay a decent amount of money and time to watch absolute drivel week after week. Fans who have put up with watching shite boring football for over 12 months and have simply had enough.

So I assume with you its a case of the fans just put up & shut up ?

Only if you've chosen to read every other word.

As I've said quite a lot on here, feel free to protest the manager outside the 90 minutes. Organise protests outside the ground. Lobby Sharon. Join the supporters trust en masse and turn it into an advocacy group.

The fact is this isn't some travesty of football, it's just a decent squad of players being badly used by a manager who should be sacked. However, a good manager would also have played a lot of bad football this season - because of the disruption and injuries. They'd have won more games, though.

Evatt's probably 8-10 points off where a really good manager would be under the same circumstances. That's enough, after Oxford; but people are acting as though they're having to watch Paul Jewell's Derby side.

Like I say, it's mob nonsense. People getting more and more angry as they bounce off one another. It's notable the folk who don't use social media are the least annoyed of the ones around me at games, or who I know in person.

[Bertie Wooster]

I've no issue with my view being seen as "old fashioned."

If fans don't want to be treated like customers they need to stop talking about the football like it's a trip to the cinema.

You are part of the club and a key part of the process of winning games. Everyone who has ever kicked a ball professionally will tell you it's easier to play well with backing and harder with barking.

Every fan accepts that's true, until they don't get the results they're wanting and then it's complete nonsense and the players should show up regardless.

The reality is that a section of the fanbase would rather vent and negatively impact the team than suck it up and make us more likely to win games. For me that's piss poor.

Evatt should have been sacked because he makes the team less likely to win. Fans who want him gone for that reason responding to it by making the team less likely to win is ironic.

If the fans negativity (which is against the manager & the managers style of football / DNA) is affecting the players performances (which I'm not disagreeing with) then the board of directors & chairman surely should remove the cause of the negativity to improve the players performances, simples !

[Worthy4England]

Paul Jewell's Derby side had a completely different set of expectations going into their 17? point premiership season than we not unreasonably had this. I doubt any of their fanbase started the season thinking they might get top 2.

[BWFC_Insane]

It's mob bollocks.

Really ?, not loyal football fans who pay a decent amount of money and time to watch absolute drivel week after week. Fans who have put up with watching shite boring football for over 12 months and have simply had enough.

So I assume with you its a case of the fans just put up & shut up ?

It's easy for folks to forget, football is expensive - the average weekly wage for Bolton after tax is probably about £520. If you chug half of that on rent/rates and the like, you're down to £260. A football ticket is between £17-30 usually, add in couple of pints and car parking/transport, then our "melts" can be spending 10-15% of their weekly disposable on watching shite served up for 90 minutes. If I spent another 10% on a ruby after the match, and it was shit, you bet I'm going to mention it and the folks making that probably aren't earning six figure salaries that these spoiled brats are.

Completely agree with your point and I’d add that £520 is probably higher than reality given that our median is likely sub the national one.

Add in people spending hundreds in some cases thousands for Wembley last season to be let down. Many are still paying that off. Players and manager won’t care about that. Don’t care about the kids who maybe are starting out watching us who Wembley completely switched off.

Results happen. Things can be bad. But Bolton fans have backed the club in an unprecedented way in the last few years. It does feel like it’s been pretty one way.

[BWFC_Insane]

With a decent manager we’d be in the championship now. That is where we should be now. So saying we should be 8-10 points better off is complete nonsense.

To make up for the previous two seasons the bare minimum. Bare acceptable minimum this time was automatic promotion. And that would put Evatt in a sort of neutral position. It wouldn’t win back positively as we are at least one season behind.

[GhostoftheBok]

Paul Jewell's Derby side had a completely different set of expectations going into their 17? point premiership season than we not unreasonably had this. I doubt any of their fanbase started the season thinking they might get top 2.

I think the point where you start musing that "hey, maybe we are as bad as Jewell's Derby" is the point where I move on.

[DJBlu]

I've no issue with my view being seen as "old fashioned."

If fans don't want to be treated like customers they need to stop talking about the football like it's a trip to the cinema.

You are part of the club and a key part of the process of winning games. Everyone who has ever kicked a ball professionally will tell you it's easier to play well with backing and harder with barking.

Every fan accepts that's true, until they don't get the results they're wanting and then it's complete nonsense and the players should show up regardless.

The reality is that a section of the fanbase would rather vent and negatively impact the team than suck it up and make us more likely to win games. For me that's piss poor.

Evatt should have been sacked because he makes the team less likely to win. Fans who want him gone for that reason responding to it by making the team less likely to win is ironic.

If the fans negativity (which is against the manager & the managers style of football / DNA) is affecting the players performances (which I'm not disagreeing with) then the board of directors & chairman surely should remove the cause of the negativity to improve the players performances, simples !

Our promotion year was in front of no fans so in a way they have a point however we did our best when 35,000 fans + team were in unison at Wembley.

It's not as simple as take one away and it'll be reet.

I do think we're focusing on the negative too much whilst I appreciate there is a shit ton of it.

Evatt is too stubborn to acknowledge that he might be doing something wrong which doesn't help his cause. Imagine he'd changed the system and we beat Cambridge. What then? It'd be

We told you so,
It's only Cambridge,
We'll still get battered at Huddersfield,
A better team beats us today,

The list continues.

We're inherently pessimistic and we can't just enjoy the game at face value.

How long does the new man get until,

Nothings changed,
Their Evatts players etc.

This season has already been written off by many, myself included but they might still surprise us.

[Worthy4England]

It's mob bollocks.

Really ?, not loyal football fans who pay a decent amount of money and time to watch absolute drivel week after week. Fans who have put up with watching shite boring football for over 12 months and have simply had enough.

So I assume with you its a case of the fans just put up & shut up ?

It's easy for folks to forget, football is expensive - the average weekly wage for Bolton after tax is probably about £520. If you chug half of that on rent/rates and the like, you're down to £260. A football ticket is between £17-30 usually, add in couple of pints and car parking/transport, then our "melts" can be spending 10-15% of their weekly disposable on watching shite served up for 90 minutes. If I spent another 10% on a ruby after the match, and it was shit, you bet I'm going to mention it and the folks making that probably aren't earning six figure salaries that these spoiled brats are.

Completely agree with your point and I’d add that £520 is probably higher than reality given that our median is likely sub the national one.

Add in people spending hundreds in some cases thousands for Wembley last season to be let down. Many are still paying that off. Players and manager won’t care about that. Don’t care about the kids who maybe are starting out watching us who Wembley completely switched off.

Results happen. Things can be bad. But Bolton fans have backed the club in an unprecedented way in the last few years. It does feel like it’s been pretty one way.

^^ I used the one for Bolton mate, not the national.

There isn't a spin where we scrape the top 6 and I say "well that turned out on target, well done Club"...

They want applause and not vocalised opposition from sections of the crowd, they need to get a better product on display week in week out, than what we've seen. There is no doubt we've gone backwards over 12 months. If you don't bother with tackling, contested heading and effort because that's not the vogue, and you don't score any and maybe concede two, what the feck have you been given in return for your hard earned? I mean the answer is nothing.

[Harry Genshaw]

I can see something of both arguments but our support, in terms of numbers, during Evatts tenure has been remarkable. We have turned up and made lots of noise, particularly in the big games and then, more often than not, watched the players meekly surrender. This idea that us getting behind them will help them clearly isn't true!

[Bertie Wooster]

They want applause and not vocalised opposition from sections of the crowd, they need to get a better product on display week in week out, than what we've seen. There is no doubt we've gone backwards over 12 months. If you don't bother with tackling, contested heading and effort because that's not the vogue, and you don't score any and maybe concede two, what the feck have you been given in return for your hard earned? I mean the answer is nothing.

In one....add in the arrogance and stubbornness of a narcissistic, robotic manager.

I actually think that the fans have been very patient this past 12 months, they are basically at the end of their tether - they have had simply enough of turning up week after week, month after month and watching the same shite non football and then listening to the managers (and some players) bullshit. Yet nothing, absolutely nothing changes.

The fans are not being listened to and are being completely ignored by both the manager & the chairman, the fans are very frustrated - how else can they express their dissatisfaction and get the message across that they want things to change, so that they have something to at least get them semi excited on match days instead of being completely bored shitless, knowing exactly how the 90 mins is going to pan out.

[Worthy4England]

I can see something of both arguments but our support, in terms of numbers, during Evatts tenure has been remarkable. We have turned up and made lots of noise, particularly in the big games and then, more often than not, watched the players meekly surrender. This idea that us getting behind them will help them clearly isn't true!

Good example of that for me was last year's Barnsley play-off at home. Got lots of support, got a lead, got really nervous and frail and wonder why, when their team hit back, it translated to the crowd!

It's a two way street for me. Crowd reacts to what's in front of 'em. They're professional footballers not Year 6 kids turning out to get a certificate for turning out!

[Worthy4England]

Also this notion that this only occurs in football is wrong anyhow. We deliver something sub-par for a customer, they tell us, in no uncertain terms. Sure there's not a few 1000 of 'em, but I wouldn't be expecting them to sit there cheering us on!

[boltonboris]

A new manager who will get results and is a lovely bloke would be great.

Right now I only care about winning tomorrow night. Then I'll care about Saturday.

Make him apologise. Fine him. Crack on.

We know the terms. We go up or he's gone. He's not going much before then.

He's staying and I want to go up. Slim chance, but on we go.

He's not going until he's repaid his debt to Sharon

[boltonboris]

Evatt has apologised for his f-off. Apparently said in frustration at the first half performance and definitely not aimed at the supporters.

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... -outburst/

Liar

[Armchair Wanderer]

Also this notion that this only occurs in football is wrong anyhow. We deliver something sub-par for a customer, they tell us, in no uncertain terms. Sure there's not a few 1000 of 'em, but I wouldn't be expecting them to sit there cheering us on!

True.

I've been thinking about the end of the season thing. It's the season tickets, if nothing changes they can tell advertiser's etc they'll have at least x people every home game, and people are still travelling. And even then, there's no evidence that people won't buy another season ticket next year, no matter what. Changing things mid season is probably expensive and not ideal. It makes sense as a business.

But that's just treating it like a business, it's not considering if it's good/bad for the club longer term. And selling one of the better players in the process reminds me of what happened with Megson.