Coyle's top 3 signings

[Martin_Cruise]

1.Holden
Bolton's most influential player since Jay Jay Okocha.Both were the difference between us staying up and going down one season.

2.Wilshire.Not as important as Holden but he added some badly needed flair to the desperately untalented midfield Megson had assembled.

3.Sturridge.The second best striker we have had in the Premier League era.

[Gail Platz]

1.Holden
Bolton's most influential player since Jay Jay Okocha.Both were the difference between us staying up and going down one season.

Why do people talk about Holden as if he's some sort of fecking God?

Yes, he's a good player, a good player that has been injured almost as long as Sean Davis. To compare him to Okocha is way over the top, Okocha DID single handedly keep us up in the '03 season, I can't recall Holden doing something like that.

Okocha had his bad games but when on top form, Holden isn't fit enough to lace his boots.

[LeDonk]

1.Holden
Bolton's most influential player since Jay Jay Okocha.Both were the difference between us staying up and going down one season.

2.Wilshire.Not as important as Holden but he added some badly needed flair to the desperately untalented midfield Megson had assembled.

3.Sturridge.The second best striker we have had in the Premier League era.

Not so much flair, just did the simple things. Keeping possession and passing to a white shirt.

[Gail Platz]

1.Holden
Bolton's most influential player since Jay Jay Okocha.Both were the difference between us staying up and going down one season.

2.Wilshire.Not as important as Holden but he added some badly needed flair to the desperately untalented midfield Megson had assembled.

3.Sturridge.The second best striker we have had in the Premier League era.

Not so much flair, just did the simple things. Keeping possession and passing to a white shirt.

Something that nobody in the Bolton team can do.

[LeDonk]

1.Holden
Bolton's most influential player since Jay Jay Okocha.Both were the difference between us staying up and going down one season.

2.Wilshire.Not as important as Holden but he added some badly needed flair to the desperately untalented midfield Megson had assembled.

3.Sturridge.The second best striker we have had in the Premier League era.

Not so much flair, just did the simple things. Keeping possession and passing to a white shirt.

Something that nobody in the Bolton team can do.

Hence where we are.

[Tombwfc]

If he's out for much longer there will be calls to scrap the Nat statue and build one of Holden instead.

Which season was he the difference between us staying up and going down? He played a massive 115 minutes in his first season with us before getting injured. In his second he got injured in March and we were about 8th until the last couple of games.

[SmokinFrazier]

Ream was terrible away at Newcastle last year, and in at least one other game. He's never looked overly convincing and has been embarrassing so far this season.

I don't remember him looking too bad against Newcastle that day. If I remember right, we defended well against them until Ben Arfa's cracking goal. Maybe he could have brought Ben Arfa down but that doesn't mean he was terrible. Newcastle at that time - especially Cisse - were scoring goals for fun so to keep a clean sheer 70 minutes, it's hard to imagine any of the defenders had an awful game.

[Prufrock]

I'm not counting loans. Sturridge and Wilshere both good 'signings' but I think the nub of this thread is Coyle's (I hate this word) 'vision'.

Top three by some distance are Wheater, Eagles and Holden. Tough to pick an order, Holden would win hands down if it were a question of quality, but he has missed massive chunks (I'm not blaming Coyle for that -though I'm not convinced there hasn't been some mismanagement along the way- but it does make it hard to make him 'best signing'). Wheater solid and dependable, an actual defender. Eagles, what we thought we were getting; crucially he doesn't hide, and he scores goals even if he has more than the odd mare too. I do think long term Sordell will be a good 'un too. He has missed a hell of a lot of chances for us so far, and we haven't made many all round. That might sound like a back handed compliment, but he is there to miss them. Given time I think he'll get there.

Been some proper shit 'uns too. Alonso is gash, Ream is getting worse, Mears is either absolute dogshit or terrified to play for a manager who keeps picking him for two clubs.

[Martin_Cruise]

If he's out for much longer there will be calls to scrap the Nat statue and build one of Holden instead.

Which season was he the difference between us staying up and going down? He played a massive 115 minutes in his first season with us before getting injured. In his second he got injured in March and we were about 8th until the last couple of games.

Bolton were relegation fodder without Holden the only season he played many games.He has been at Bolton 3 seasons and I obviously wasn't referring to the season he made his debut on the last day of the season or the season he played no league games and we went down.

If we'd lined up at Wembley with Holden/Muamba we'd probably have made the FA Cup Final, line up with Muamba/ELmander and it was absolute garbage that belonged in a lower division.It was the same in Autumn that season when Holden was injured and Mark Davies replaced him.Muamba/Davies were dominated at the Reebok by Blackpool, a poor relegated side we'd easily have beaten with Holden buzzing around.

The match he was injured at Man Utd.Comfortably holding them at 0-0 with ten minutes left, the rest of them even with an extra man couldn't do the job.Without Holden it was a relegation team that eventually finished 14th after being 6th in March when Holden was injured.It was no surprise to me we were so terrible last season without Holden.It was one man making the midfield function the season before.

[BWFC_Insane]

If he's out for much longer there will be calls to scrap the Nat statue and build one of Holden instead.

Which season was he the difference between us staying up and going down? He played a massive 115 minutes in his first season with us before getting injured. In his second he got injured in March and we were about 8th until the last couple of games.

Bolton were relegation fodder without Holden the only season he played many games.He has been at Bolton 3 seasons and I obviously wasn't referring to the season he made his debut on the last day of the season or the season he played no league games and we went down.

If we'd lined up at Wembley with Holden/Muamba we'd probably have made the FA Cup Final, line up with Muamba/ELmander and it was absolute garbage that belonged in a lower division.It was the same in Autumn that season when Holden was injured and Mark Davies replaced him.Muamba/Davies were dominated at the Reebok by Blackpool, a poor relegated side we'd easily have beaten with Holden buzzing around.

The match he was injured at Man Utd.Comfortably holding them at 0-0 with ten minutes left, the rest of them even with an extra man couldn't do the job.Without Holden it was a relegation team that eventually finished 14th after being 6th in March when Holden was injured.It was no surprise to me we were so terrible last season without Holden.It was one man making the midfield function the season before.

Holden was and has been a huge loss.

However, in the overall analysis and I said this at the time, the goals of Elmander and Sturridge in that season, covered up for the failings we had in the team. Lets face it, Elmander was on fire first half of the season, Sturridge the second. And Davies played a good support role for them at the time. When Elmander's goals stopped being quite as regular, we struggled until Sturridge came in. Then we struggled when he wasn't available.

As much as Holden clearly was a huge miss, taking the quality and goals of Elmander and Sturridge out of the side and failing to come close to replacing them cost us. So I don't think its as clear cut as saying Holden was the sole difference!

[thebish]

Holden was and has been a huge loss.

However, in the overall analysis and I said this at the time, the goals of Elmander and Sturridge in that season, covered up for the failings we had in the team.

To be fair, you also said that we wouldn't miss Holden because Pratley would step up!

[BWFC_Insane]

Holden was and has been a huge loss.

However, in the overall analysis and I said this at the time, the goals of Elmander and Sturridge in that season, covered up for the failings we had in the team.

To be fair, you also said that we wouldn't miss Holden because Pratley would step up!

Not exactly what I said though....but anyway......

[Whookam]

If he's out for much longer there will be calls to scrap the Nat statue and build one of Holden instead.

Which season was he the difference between us staying up and going down? He played a massive 115 minutes in his first season with us before getting injured. In his second he got injured in March and we were about 8th until the last couple of games.

Bolton were relegation fodder without Holden the only season he played many games.He has been at Bolton 3 seasons and I obviously wasn't referring to the season he made his debut on the last day of the season or the season he played no league games and we went down.

If we'd lined up at Wembley with Holden/Muamba we'd probably have made the FA Cup Final, line up with Muamba/ELmander and it was absolute garbage that belonged in a lower division.It was the same in Autumn that season when Holden was injured and Mark Davies replaced him.Muamba/Davies were dominated at the Reebok by Blackpool, a poor relegated side we'd easily have beaten with Holden buzzing around.

The match he was injured at Man Utd.Comfortably holding them at 0-0 with ten minutes left, the rest of them even with an extra man couldn't do the job.Without Holden it was a relegation team that eventually finished 14th after being 6th in March when Holden was injured.It was no surprise to me we were so terrible last season without Holden.It was one man making the midfield function the season before.

Utter rubbish. Holden was a part of a team that found its stride together for a brief couple of months in 2010. As a central midfield partnership Holden and Mumaba were number 1 and number 2 for tackles in the Premier League respectively and had two of the highest pass completion rates. However the goals were coming from Elmander and, when he stopped scoring, Sturridge. We had three effective wingers in Petrov, Taylor and Lee all who performed comparatively (assists and goals) throughout that period. Last but not least was Kevin Davies' Indian summer, the final time that he looked like a Premier League player.

The level that Muamba and Holden were playing at was likely to be unsustainable and was shown to be the case as our form dipped around Christmas. Elmander ceased scoring, Lee took an extended break and Kevin Davies' form took the dramatic nose dive that lead to the displays the following season. If anyone could be credited with keeping us up that season it's Sturridge because his goals gave us the points that resulted in 14th place and no lower.

Finally it was noted by a few at the time that it's not actually a good thing having your central midfield pairing as the top two tacklers in the Premier League for obvious reasons.

[thebish]

Holden was and has been a huge loss.

However, in the overall analysis and I said this at the time, the goals of Elmander and Sturridge in that season, covered up for the failings we had in the team.

To be fair, you also said that we wouldn't miss Holden because Pratley would step up!

Not exactly what I said though....but anyway......

if you want exactitude...

thusly:

Holdens a good player. We won't miss him half as much this season though now that we have Pratley, NRC and a fit Mark Davies.

that'd be Pratley and the fit mark davies you wanted to bin off to anybidder.com...

[Lord Kangana]

I'd say:

1) Holden
2) NRC
3) Sturridge

That'd be fre, free, and loan. Throw Wilshere in if you want. He's nowhere near wasted as much money on signings as Megson. Who we've made a spectacular loss on so far. Holden injured? So what about CYL?

[BWFC_Insane]

Holden was and has been a huge loss.

However, in the overall analysis and I said this at the time, the goals of Elmander and Sturridge in that season, covered up for the failings we had in the team.

To be fair, you also said that we wouldn't miss Holden because Pratley would step up!

Not exactly what I said though....but anyway......

if you want exactitude...

thusly:

Holdens a good player. We won't miss him half as much this season though now that we have Pratley, NRC and a fit Mark Davies.

that'd be Pratley and the fit mark davies you wanted to bin off to anybidder.com...

The theory behind that being that the season before when Holden was out we had Tamir Cohen, Elmander and Ricardo Gardner competing for central midfield roles.

I don't think it was that ridiculous to suggest we wouldn't miss Holden AS MUCH with NRC and Pratley and Mark Davies back, all central midfield players by trade.

As it turns out I was wrong and we did miss Holden, more so. However, its hard to quantify how much difference he made, and how much the goals of Elmander and Sturridge actually papered over the issues that season.

I suspect a bit of both.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Quick note on Holden. Soccerbase lets you analyse a team's results with and without any given player/s. In 2010/11, when Stuart Holden played (inc as sub) our record was W43%, D30%, L27%. Without him, W25%, D13%, L63%. And that "with" figure includes the loss at MU that happened after he went off. Coincidence or correlation? We could argue all night.

On the wider question, it seems very much like most are in agreement that Coyle has done better when not spending big transfer fees.

[Whookam]

Quick note on Holden. Soccerbase lets you analyse a team's results with and without any given player/s. In 2010/11, when Stuart Holden played (inc as sub) our record was W43%, D30%, L27%. Without him, W25%, D13%, L63%. And that "with" figure includes the loss at MU that happened after he went off. Coincidence or correlation? We could argue all night.

It'd be interesting to see the stats of the season at the halfway point. We were already dropping by the time Holden got injured and proceeded to go into free fall after the semi-final. Holden was a huge loss, that I do not deny, but there were many other factors.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Quick note on Holden. Soccerbase lets you analyse a team's results with and without any given player/s. In 2010/11, when Stuart Holden played (inc as sub) our record was W43%, D30%, L27%. Without him, W25%, D13%, L63%. And that "with" figure includes the loss at MU that happened after he went off. Coincidence or correlation? We could argue all night.

It'd be interesting to see the stats of the season at the halfway point. We were already dropping by the time Holden got injured and proceeded to go into free fall after the semi-final. Holden was a huge loss, that I do not deny, but there were many other factors.

It doesn't do that easily so yer on yer own... try statto.com, I think that might do breakdowns by time, but possibly not with/out certain players.

[Ianmooreslovechild]

Meh who started this ugly girl competition anyway.What's the ratio? 4 half decent signings out of 12 plus. Going to need a lot of signings before coyle can build a successful team. Perhaps city will give him a crack when he s finished his work here