Coyle's top 3 signings

[BWFC_Insane]

This is why I don't think it's entirely as simple as losing Holden. We lost Elmander and Sturridge at the same time. NRC to an extent replaced Holden. Clearly not as good a player by some way. But not a bad one either, but we'd lost Elmanders goal and workrate. And Sturridges pace and goals and flair.

For me the loss of two strikers was almost as big......

[Ianmooreslovechild]

I think he was after that with Keith Andrews. Time will tell.

I'm sure he was. Andrews is as close as we've got. Not as athletic or nimble minded/footed but at least the sort of player who might make coyles preferred system workable with a scrapper alongside him.

Like BWFCi says though it was our failure to find a goalscorer that had as big an impact last season.Hope we've found one this time out.

Our defense under coyle has always been shite. Thats a given, always likely to leak goals even with moo and Holden protecting them

[midlands exile]

Holden
Sturridge
Wilshere

I remember seeing Holden's single return game against Villa last season, and he absolutely bossed that match. It was like watching a different team with him in it.

Running into space. Pressing. Tackling. Passing it well and intelligently. Communicating with everyone else on the pitch.

I haven't seen a match since where someone has run the game from our midfield like that.

The closest is the Muamba / Reo-Coker / M Davies triumvirate in midfield - one of whom walked out, one of whom would have been shunted out if it hadn't been for tragedy, and another who is being hawked around to anyone with more money than sense. Says it all about OC's "man management genius".

[Lord Kangana]

Our defence was a problem when he arrived. That it still hasn't been rectified is an issue, but I remember going an entire season without a clean sheet not long before (or was it 1 or something?).

As for strikers, absolutely, Sturridge was being touted at around £20m, and we had paid e11M and £50k/w for Elmander. With the best will in the world, the money and wages we pay/are paying for Sordell and N'gog is never going to touch that. Its fairly basic stuff.

[BWFC_Insane]

Our defence was a problem when he arrived. That it still hasn't been rectified is an issue, but I remember going an entire season without a clean sheet not long before (or was it 1 or something?).

As for strikers, absolutely, Sturridge was being touted at around £20m, and we had paid e11M and £50k/w for Elmander. With the best will in the world, the money and wages we pay/are paying for Sordell and N'gog is never going to touch that. Its fairly basic stuff.

Elmander cost 8.2M according to Gartside and was not on that amount a week, though he was highly paid.

We've paid 7M on Ngog and Sordell and not come close to replacing him.

That aside Bolton simply cannot afford to be spending million/s of pounds on players who end up sitting on the bench. You know that and I do.

Both our current and past manager have been guilty of that, and it cannot continue.

[Ianmooreslovechild]

Our defence was a problem when he arrived. That it still hasn't been rectified is an issue, but I remember going an entire season without a clean sheet not long before (or was it 1 or something?).

As for strikers, absolutely, Sturridge was being touted at around £20m, and we had paid e11M and £50k/w for Elmander. With the best will in the world, the money and wages we pay/are paying for Sordell and N'gog is never going to touch that. Its fairly basic stuff.

Yes, to be honest the one qualm I have when moaning about coyle and his signings is that he is trying to run a team on half the wages of the previous team. In that sense he has an impossible job.
Doesnt excuse his complete lack of nouse in using those players though.

[officer_dibble]

He's spent £6million on centre halves and you could play all 3 instead of cahill and they wouldn't come close..He's had money but not well. Has his scouting budget been cut?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

the Muamba / Reo-Coker / M Davies triumvirate in midfield - one of whom walked out, one of whom would have been shunted out if it hadn't been for tragedy, and another who is being hawked around to anyone with more money than sense. Says it all about OC's "man management genius".

Or, alternatively, "not being sold to a higher-division club who offered £6m". Hardly the same. Again, plenty enough to criticise abut OC without making things up.

[Ianmooreslovechild]

He's spent £6million on centre halves and you could play all 3 instead of cahill and they wouldn't come close..He's had money but not well. Has his scouting budget been cut?

It's wage and fee. He cant spend what megson did. Cahill cost us 5 mil I think and he was an aston villa reserve. Though yes clearly on the whole coyle hasnt spent well

[BWFC_Insane]

He's spent £6million on centre halves and you could play all 3 instead of cahill and they wouldn't come close..He's had money but not well. Has his scouting budget been cut?

It's wage and fee. He cant spend what megson did. Cahill cost us 5 mil I think and he was an aston villa reserve. Though yes clearly on the whole coyle hasnt spent well

As Coyle himself said we've knocked 16M from the wage bill, let's not pretend we are paying buttons now......

I can forgive frees but at Bolton if you spend 2.5M on Marcos Alonso and follow it up by spending 2M on Ream.....well.........simply can't be done!

[Ianmooreslovechild]

Not going to try and make a defense for coyle but cutting the wages of a team which was possibly relegation fodder when he came in even with the players on the high wages was never going to be easy for any manager.

[BWFC_Insane]

Not going to try and make a defense for coyle but cutting the wages of a team which was possibly relegation fodder when he came in even with the players on the high wages was never going to be easy for any manager.

Well yes, but the wage bill was cut this summer. And had we been in the premiership, according to Coyle himself the idea was to cut the wage bill so we could invest more in fees for younger 'exceptional talent'.

The trouble is he's spent money on poor players. And whatever budget we are trying to run towards, for Bolton that is bad news.

[Lord Kangana]

Whichever way you wish to twist this, he's spent less net than his predecessor, he's been consistently cutting the wage bill since his arrival. The non-replacement of keepers, the non-like-for-like replacement of strikers, it goes on and on. I know I'll never get you to admit it, but thats the cold hard facts of this case. And it'll get worse, not better, whether Coyle goes or doesn't unless something happens to our funding or something drastic like wage capping (or something equally unlikely) happens sometime soon. I'm sorry to have to break it to you so bluntly.

[Harry Genshaw]

If we'd lined up at Wembley with Holden/Muamba we'd probably have made the FA Cup Final,

The maddest thing I've ever, EVER, read on here

Why? We had a better team than Stoke before Holden was injured.We were 6th in the table several places above Stoke because we had a team that got better results.

Take Holden out of the team and it was a relegation team that got battered 5-0 and shipped in 4 at Blackpool.He was that important to the team.There's no chance we'd have lost 5-0 to Stoke or let in 4 at Blackpool if the matches were in February when Holden was fit.

You're right. If Holden had been fit, Petrov would have chased back for the 2nd & 3rd (iirc - I had my eyes closed by then), Paul Robinson would have been a good full back, Huths shank wouldn't have flown in & Coyle would have changed tactics at half time and approached the 2nd in a different manner

Holden is a great player but he aint Paul Daniels

[BWFC_Insane]

Whichever way you wish to twist this, he's spent less net than his predecessor, he's been consistently cutting the wage bill since his arrival. The non-replacement of keepers, the non-like-for-like replacement of strikers, it goes on and on. I know I'll never get you to admit it, but thats the cold hard facts of this case. And it'll get worse, not better, whether Coyle goes or doesn't unless something happens to our funding or something drastic like wage capping (or something equally unlikely) happens sometime soon. I'm sorry to have to break it to you so bluntly.

And it's all relative and as I said before its a trend in English football. Other clubs are cutting spending too. Bigger clubs than ourselves.

However you like to twist things we need a competent manager, and currently do not have one. His use of whatever budget there is, has shown that very clearly!

[Lord Kangana]

I've never made any argument about his competency. Indeed, I've stuck consistently to the relative money spent. Which, in plain English means we have a f*ckwit in charge who has spent a damn sight less than the previous f*ckwit who spent every last penny we had.

[Tombwfc]

This is slightly veering off at a tangent, but I don't understand how people seem to want to have it both ways where A) Megson bought a load of overpriced shit and B) Coyle can't possibly compete with the players Megson bought because he doesn't have the same funds. If they are that shit and that overpriced (and don't get me wrong, nearly all of them were overpriced), how hard could it be to get better players for cheaper?

Simultaneously Elmander manages to be an utter joke of a signing, but also a player the like of which we can't possibly afford to replace, despite having chucked £7mil at strikers.

It's the same with Zat Knight. For years he's been held up as one of the worst defenders on planet earth. Surely you could get a much better player for half of what we paid for him? Apparently Coyle can't.

There has been money to spend, both on wages and players. Enough to keep us competitive in the Premier League, and be serious promotion contenders now we're in the Championship. Coyle's spent it on shit and they've been managed even worse.

[Ianmooreslovechild]

This is slightly veering off at a tangent, but I don't understand how people seem to want to have it both ways where A) Megson bought a load of overpriced shit and B) Coyle can't possibly compete with the players Megson bought because he doesn't have the same funds. If they are that shit and that overpriced (and don't get me wrong, nearly all of them were overpriced), how hard could it be to get better players for cheaper?

Simultaneously Elmander manages to be an utter joke of a signing, but also a player the like of which we can't possibly afford to replace, despite having chucked £7mil at strikers.

It's the same with Zat Knight. For years he's been held up as one of the worst defenders on planet earth. Surely you could get a much better player for half of what we paid for him? Apparently Coyle can't.

There has been money to spend, both on wages and players. Enough to keep us competitive in the Premier League, and be serious promotion contenders now we're in the Championship. Coyle's spent it on shit and they've been managed even worse.

Megson signed some decent players though some were overpriced and he never really made full use of them due to his instinctive negativity. Coyle briefly released their potential.His signings are generally below the level of those signed by Megson and are on lower wages. Knight is a good championship defender but not really up to premier league standards. Not sure you can buy an experienced quality centre half for 3 mil or a premier league striker for less than 5 mil.

Well you can but only if you buy from out of the country or take a chance on players from lower leagues(both of which require very good scouting)

[Gail Platz]

In my opinion there's only really been Ngog, Mears and Alonso that are truly shit and can't possibly be any better because of how shit they are. We've seen glimpses from Mark Davies, Petrov, Sordell and others to say these players at the top of their game are easily Premier League class. I'd even go as far as to say a decent manager could make a half decent player out of Pratley.

Again, the problem is not fully down to the recruitment but the ability of the manager to get the best of the players he's recruited. He's clearly not doing that at the moment.

[Ianmooreslovechild]

In my opinion there's only really been Ngog, Mears and Alonso that are truly shit and can't possibly be any better because of how shit they are. We've seen glimpses from Mark Davies, Petrov, Sordell and others to say these players at the top of their game are easily Premier League class. I'd even go as far as to say a decent manager could make a half decent player out of Pratley.

Again, the problem is not fully down to the recruitment but the ability of the manager to get the best of the players he's recruited. He's clearly not doing that at the moment.

Well yes. I'd argue that NGog can still be effective and do a job in the right system and even Alonso I think has potential but not as a left back. It's hard to judge the potential of players who are playing in a losing team,lacking confidence and managed by someone who doesnt seem to know how to get the best out of them or what system suits them.Ultimately that's the damning thing for coyle more so than the actual signings themselves.