Coyle - Time to go? [post-Everton]

[Armchair Wanderer]

During a similar period time-wise Megson lost the services of Diouf, Anelka, Nolan, Speed, Campo, Stelios, Meite, Wihelmsson, Braaten, Cid, Alonso, Michalik. All players who had featured in the first team in the premiership.

Wow. Those last 4 or 5 would have taken a lot of replacing.

When I was looking up info for the Everton game I had a look at the Sammy Lee team we played, it really wasn't a PL-standard team. Megson had to apply some common sense and leave the non-prem players out. The fact that there's more of them says more about Sammy Lee than anything.

Another way to look at it is that 5 of the 11 from Megson's last game have left the club, are injured or are not OC's first choice in their position (Knight, Steinsson, Taylor, Cohen, Lee). You could also say that he's tried, unsuccessfully, to replace Robbo and the two frontmen. That's 8 players!

Marcos Alonso and Pratley haven't looked particularly brilliant. NRC, Holden, Wheater and Eagles have been at least ok for us. Mears and Ngog haven't had much of a chance either through injury or just circumstances. Loanees: Boyata, Sturridge, Wilshire, Kakuta, Weiss, Tuncay.. bit hit and miss but generally a high standard.

Personally, I don't think OC's transfer policy is the reason we're in the bottom three. Selection, tactics, preparation, discipline and injuries altogether may have contributed.

[Lord Kangana]

So the conclusion is that Coyle is a miracle worker then. Given that inflation exists, and he's spent significantly less money (an indisputable fact that can't be tackled in argument head-on) than his predecessor and yet managed our highest points total since Allardyce's last season. And a cup semi final.

Breathtaking achievement for me.

Sadly you can't survive on fresh air forever. The chickens are coming home to roost.

[BWFC_Insane]

So the conclusion is that Coyle is a miracle worker then. Given that inflation exists, and he's spent significantly less money (an indisputable fact that can't be tackled in argument head-on) than his predecessor and yet managed our highest points total since Allardyce's last season. And a cup semi final.

Breathtaking achievement for me.

Sadly you can't survive on fresh air forever. The chickens are coming home to roost.

Clearly thats not the conclusion.

The conclusion is that despite retaining the majority of the same players and adding numbers to that, Coyle still can't match the 13th placed league position Megson managed in his second season, and in the third season can't manage to match Megsons one point per game.

This is despite the fact he has the same squad and has been allowed to add to it and still retain the best asset. As opposed to Megson who had to replace as demonstrated and entire first team squad as has been demonstrated.


Coyle inherited a different position as has been irrefutably shown in the player retention stats and has not been able to achieve the same level of results!

[Lord Kangana]

Season before Megson arrived -7th

Season before Coyle arrived - 13th.

Clearly not a better squad.

[BWFC_Insane]

Season before Megson arrived -7th

Season before Coyle arrived - 13th.

Clearly not a better squad.

Yeah but that spectacularly misses the point. Megson when he left had 2 players in the team that pre-dated him at the club.

Coyle has 8.

So totally different comparisons.

Megson rebuilt a squad and Coyle has tinkered round the edges and hasnt been asked to rebuild an entire squad.

As I say you can argue Megsons players that Coyle inherited weren't good enough.......

[Mar]

You could also argue that providing Megson with money made the club look like it was going places which was indeed a boost to the club. At the minute we're giving off the impression we're a club with aging players and those that are of significant value are looking to be elsewhere. We're not a club that the players really want to stay at.

Allardyce had the likes of Nolan, Okocha, Djorkaeff, etc. buying into his philosphy of how to play the game.
Megson had his favourites which were happy to play by his style but caused problems elsewhere.
Coyle's looking to build his squad to get those players but at the minute it looks like so many are buying out of the philosophy and are looking for pastures new. I think someone with a steady head whose been around the block and on the cheap would work wonders for our squad. Sad thing is buying a player like that is going against Owen Coyle's signing style which is buy them young and train them.

[Lord Kangana]

So the conclusion is that Coyle is a miracle worker then. Given that inflation exists, and he's spent significantly less money (an indisputable fact that can't be tackled in argument head-on) than his predecessor and yet managed our highest points total since Allardyce's last season. And a cup semi final.

Breathtaking achievement for me.

Sadly you can't survive on fresh air forever. The chickens are coming home to roost.

Clearly thats not the conclusion.

The conclusion is that despite retaining the majority of the same players and adding numbers to that, Coyle still can't match the 13th placed league position Megson managed in his second season, and in the third season can't manage to match Megsons one point per game.

This is despite the fact he has the same squad and has been allowed to add to it and still retain the best asset. As opposed to Megson who had to replace as demonstrated and entire first team squad as has been demonstrated.


Coyle inherited a different position as has been irrefutably shown in the player retention stats and has not been able to achieve the same level of results!

This squad was 19th sherlock.

[BWFC_Insane]

So the conclusion is that Coyle is a miracle worker then. Given that inflation exists, and he's spent significantly less money (an indisputable fact that can't be tackled in argument head-on) than his predecessor and yet managed our highest points total since Allardyce's last season. And a cup semi final.

Breathtaking achievement for me.

Sadly you can't survive on fresh air forever. The chickens are coming home to roost.

Clearly thats not the conclusion.

The conclusion is that despite retaining the majority of the same players and adding numbers to that, Coyle still can't match the 13th placed league position Megson managed in his second season, and in the third season can't manage to match Megsons one point per game.

This is despite the fact he has the same squad and has been allowed to add to it and still retain the best asset. As opposed to Megson who had to replace as demonstrated and entire first team squad as has been demonstrated.


Coyle inherited a different position as has been irrefutably shown in the player retention stats and has not been able to achieve the same level of results!

This squad was 19th sherlock.

Correcto and where was the squad that Megson took over from?

[Lord Kangana]

20th.

So thats 1 place for £30m and no change for nowt.

You're doing better at this than I'd hoped.

[BWFC_Insane]

20th.

So thats 1 place for £30m and no change for nowt.

You're doing better at this than I'd hoped.

As I've demonstrated you'd expect a much bigger spend when you lose all your players.

Coyle has kept Megsons players, added his own and we are still no better off!

[Lord Kangana]

Indeed.

You'd think (ok I'm stretching it here, but bear with me) that spending all that money would have achieved something. Other than getting the sack that is.

[officer_dibble]

why go all factual about it?

theres more than 3 teams in this league that would swap squads of players with us, Norwich, Swansea, Wiggin, Blackburn, Wolves

we've got a reasnonable standard of player

we've got some injuries, but still should be performing better than we are

we're disorganised, have one of the premier leagues best ever keepers, a current england centre half, current belgian (u21?), former england centre half (lol), an icelandic international fullback, bulgarian regular winger, 2 former england U21s, one former full england international in miodfield, an ageing shithouse former england international, one of the best finishers i've ever seen in a whites shirt, a £4m pound man, a turkey international with sampions league experience...more than enough to finish mid table...AND WE ARE fecking SHITE!! Awful, worse than under Sammy Lee, worse than Roy McFarland, the worst premier league set of results we've ever managed!!

That is why its time to go!

[BWFC_Insane]

Indeed.

You'd think (ok I'm stretching it here, but bear with me) that spending all that money would have achieved something. Other than getting the sack that is.

Good so you're agreeing that anything less than the one point per game 38 points by end of the season would mean Coyle has failed even more than Megson did.

Glad we agree.

[Il Pirate]

We have a current England centre back. We have an England u21 defensive midfielder. We have a big & very effective target man, who 12 months ago was good enough to pull on an England shirt. We have an international goalkeeper. We have a Croatian international number 9, who's probably the third best 'fox in the box' in the premiership; after Agguiro(?) & Hernandez. Not to mention our other players who have and some still are, playing international football for their countries. Why, oh why are we so shit?
We show no passion or desire
We show no understanding between players
We give the ball away too easily
We are unable to defend
We defend too high up the pitch
We can't score goals on a regular basis
We have no movement
We are, at present, sh it
Is this my Bolton? Do I want to watch the car crash in slow motion?
Every supporter should be able to see what's happenening.
We could be bottom at xmas & facing the trap door come February.
Stop it now.
I'm acutely aware, as the next man is of our relationship with the DMB's; but I'd take Ole Gunnar Solkskaer as manager tomorrow.
Any other suggestions?

[officer_dibble]

Coyle needs 9 points from 4 games to MATCH megsons record the season he was sacked! 3 wins!!

[Lord Kangana]

He only needs £20m to do it aswell!

Tune in next time to find if the caped hero can save the world....

[boltonboris]

Il Pirate. You think we defend too high up the pitch?

I think most of our problems come from defending too deep. Particularly in the second half of games

[Owen_Coyle]

We have a current England centre back. We have an England u21 defensive midfielder. We have a big & very effective target man, who 12 months ago was good enough to pull on an England shirt. We have an international goalkeeper. We have a Croatian international number 9, who's probably the third best 'fox in the box' in the premiership; after Agguiro(?) & Hernandez. Not to mention our other players who have and some still are, playing international football for their countries. Why, oh why are we so shit?
We show no passion or desire
We show no understanding between players
We give the ball away too easily
We are unable to defend
We defend too high up the pitch
We can't score goals on a regular basis
We have no movement
We are, at present, sh it
Is this my Bolton? Do I want to watch the car crash in slow motion?
Every supporter should be able to see what's happenening.
We could be bottom at xmas & facing the trap door come February.
Stop it now.

I agree with all these to varying degrees, but I suggest that if we sort out the ones in bold then we would go some way to sorting out some/most of the others.

We have to keep the ball better or else we won't survive. That's a fact

[Armchair Wanderer]

We have a current England centre back. We have an England u21 defensive midfielder. We have a big & very effective target man, who 12 months ago was good enough to pull on an England shirt. We have an international goalkeeper. We have a Croatian international number 9, who's probably the third best 'fox in the box' in the premiership; after Agguiro(?) & Hernandez. Not to mention our other players who have and some still are, playing international football for their countries. Why, oh why are we so shit?
We show no passion or desire
We show no understanding between players
We give the ball away too easily
We are unable to defend
We defend too high up the pitch
We can't score goals on a regular basis
We have no movement
We are, at present, sh it
Is this my Bolton? Do I want to watch the car crash in slow motion?
Every supporter should be able to see what's happenening.
We could be bottom at xmas & facing the trap door come February.
Stop it now.

I agree with all these to varying degrees, but I suggest that if we sort out the ones in bold then we would go some way to sorting out some/most of the others.

We have to keep the ball better or else we won't survive. That's a fact

You could even extend that and say that we lose the ball too easily because we have no movement. Why are we not moving around wanting the ball?

[BWFC_Insane]

Thing is for me, movement, keeping posession, are the LEAST of our troubles.

What we need to sort out first is defending, keeping clean sheets, stopping teams scoring from set pieces against us, and becoming a tight, drilled organised unit.

We're not good enough to play our way out of this. We are good enough (IMO) to scrap ourselves out.