'Splash the Cash' - Nicko writes

[Lord Kangana]

If you exchange the word "stick" for "small part of large acro prop", I take your point.

[Lofthouse Lower]

That said, the only player Coyle has spent money on since being here has yet to appear in the Premier League. Maybe he's better off without it.

I was thinking as much

We have Robinson, Ricketts and dogshit JLS as well as the Spanish kid - I seem to remeber Taylor and Gardner being chucked in as fullbacks when looking for a stick to hit Megson with

Odd deal the Alonso one

Maybe it was only ever seen as a sweetener to attract Rodrigo, or he's expected to come on tons

Having been to most of the reserve games this season, it's going to be one helluva jump before Alonso becomes first pick. Then again, Elmander was of a similar standard for 2 and half years before this current scoring form launched him into Andy Walker levels of awesomeness, so it certainly is possible.

[seanworth]

That said, the only player Coyle has spent money on since being here has yet to appear in the Premier League. Maybe he's better off without it.

I was thinking as much

We have Robinson, Ricketts and dogshit JLS as well as the Spanish kid - I seem to remeber Taylor and Gardner being chucked in as fullbacks when looking for a stick to hit Megson with

Odd deal the Alonso one

Maybe it was only ever seen as a sweetener to attract Rodrigo, or he's expected to come on tons

Having been to most of the reserve games this season, it's going to be one helluva jump before Alonso becomes first pick. Then again, Elmander was of a similar standard for 2 and half years before this current scoring form launched him into Andy Walker levels of awesomeness, so it certainly is possible.

The perfect man to ask then. What style of football are the reserves playing? Is it any reflection of the style the 1st team are presently playing? If so who is standing out?

[Lofthouse Lower]

Hard to discern a particular style, but none have stood out at all. Seriously.

[BWFC_Insane]

Hard to discern a particular style, but none have stood out at all. Seriously.

Sometimes hard to judge players in the reserves.

I've seen plenty look awful during reserve games midweek then come back into the first team and look great.

What I've seen of Alonso though hasn't been too inspiring so far but I guess he must have some potential as he was chased by a lot of teams.

So far though we've not got a great track record with these types of players but hopefully OC will change that.

[seanworth]

Hard to discern a particular style, but none have stood out at all. Seriously.

Cheers.

[Worthy4England]

Coyle wants a few extra faces in… I think if they are young, and cheap well get them. Will we sell? Probably if the right offer comes in. Is this any different than other Januarys? Not really.

Think this just about sums it all up.

We spent £3.8m on player registrations over the summer - compared to £13.8 the same period last year...

So certainly a downward trend

[Ianmooreslovechild]

There's an expectation from fans at all clubs that there should be some attempt to make signings and managers always make noises like this.If we did sign anyone it seems likely they'd be squad players on the cheap or on loan given how well the first 11 is doing.Although it's a small squad there's reasonable cover in most positions.A striker who can last 90 minutes and a centre half would be useful.

[Armchair Wanderer]

Coyle wants a few extra faces in… I think if they are young, and cheap well get them. Will we sell? Probably if the right offer comes in. Is this any different than other Januarys? Not really.

Think this just about sums it all up.

We spent £3.8m on player registrations over the summer - compared to £13.8 the same period last year...

So certainly a downward trend

Very true. And this isn't just in Bolton, no-one really spent very much in the summer.

[bw@bw]

If we have one of the smallest squads in the PL why are we paying so much in wages - and why did Gartside say we had a playing staff of 57?

[Worthy4England]

If we have one of the smallest squads in the PL why are we paying so much in wages - and why did Gartside say we had a playing staff of 57?

That includes Academy etc. The Premier League squad cap is 25. This is to prevent Clubs like Chelsea retaining players that might walk into Blackpool's team somewhere in their 3rd eleven.

We're paying so much in wages, because the first 11 need to be able to compete and that costs big in wages. The average premiership salary last season (from sportingintelligence.com) was £28k per week - £1.456m per annum. Divide our total wage bill by that figure and you'd get to about 25 players, when you take the 192 non-playing employees BWFC has out of the headline wage figure.

So we probably pay below average, on average, to everyone that's not first XI certs, to allow us to build up our reserves and Academy base...