Dougie Freedman - New Manager

[Hoboh]

“I understand that people are disappointed but from a coach’s point of view, I have to look at three or four games. I believe it’s a one-off,” he said.

“We shouldn’t get carried away because in the last four or five games we have been working very hard.

“I don’t think we should say we have big problems. We have got a few issues that need to be resolved. But we are a team and we work hard together".

But he resisted the temptation to read the riot act in the dressing room at Peterborough, believing the heavy handed approach would have been counter productive.

“I have had enough tea cups thrown at me to understand it doesn’t work,” he said.

That my friend is because you have never been good enough to play for a top manager, SAF for example, are you BWFCi in disguise? Both he and a few others think all footballers are so special they need mega pampering or the toys are thrown out the pram.

I am really not quite taking a dislike to Freedman yet but I honestly reckon the 'in camper crew' will be eating humble pie again on this appointment and Gartside prove to be a knob yet again.
Lets face it Freedman had achieved Jack before coming here so I suspect all the total backing for him with some is more 'at least he ain't Coyle' than any real hope of upwads and onwards.

Or a top manager like Mourinho who says exactly the same thing. Protect your players at all costs.

Megson threw teacups dya want him back?

Surely that sort of thing is a bit old school with modern players........

And yet word from the dressing room is that Dougie Freedman intensified his preparations for Peterborough more than he had for any of his previous opponents.

Seems that does not work either!

[BL3]

I'm not sure where you get the you 'should see a steep hike in points'. I believe statistically that's not the case.

'Statistically', Ipswich have taken 17 points from the last ten games having taken 7 from the first thirteen games. That's a pretty steep hike.

Are you Owen or Mick?

He's right though.

Yeah but who gives a shit about Ipswich. Let's just concentrate on us eh? Go support Ipswich if they're doing so well. It's boring.

Yeah, lets just keep on pretending that it's impossible to have an immediate impact with a group of underperforming players instead.

[89bwfc89]

Ok Mick, thanks for your input, its inspiring, good luck at Ipswich, you're doing SO well.

[Annoyed Grunt]

Ok Mick, thanks for your input, its inspiring, good luck at Ipswich, you're doing SO well.

Thought BL3 was Coyle?

[TANGODANCER]

N'gog's only 50-50 for Boxing Day. With K.D suspended the options are a bit slim.

[Little Green Man]

N'gog's only 50-50 for Boxing Day. With K.D suspended the options are a bit slim.

Eaves is back from Bristol Rovers.

[boltonboris]

I'd actually like to see Sordell get a go. With Eagles, Lee and Petrov behind.

Andrews with Spearing probably, behind them. I still maintain that the priority in January is to get some massive black guy who can play in defence and midfield. A Faye type.

[89bwfc89]

Ok Mick, thanks for your input, its inspiring, good luck at Ipswich, you're doing SO well.

Thought BL3 was Coyle?

Think he's given Mick his password, he's an Ipswich superfan.

[thebish]

Won't happen again?!?!

That's a bold statement. But again he's talking a good game, so that should appease enough people.

aye... if Dougie knows how to stop it happening again - why didn't he stop it happening in the first place???

[bobo the clown]

I'd actually like to see Sordell get a go. With Eagles, Lee and Petrov behind.

Andrews with Spearing probably, behind them. I still maintain that the priority in January is to get some massive black guy who can play in defence and midfield. A Faye type.

Racist.



Why should the Bulgarian be left behind ??

[ChrisC]

N'gog's only 50-50 for Boxing Day. With K.D suspended the options are a bit slim.

Eaves is back from Bristol Rovers.

Apparently they wanted him for the rest if the season but we declined.

[BWFC_Insane]

At the minute, he's one point behind Allardyce's first ten games in charge - we were still down in 12th in February of that year. I don't think he's the next Allardyce, but just saying like (Allardyce also lost game 11)

in which case - it's a disappointing start! Let's not pretend otherwise. (not saying you are, Worthy)

brave faces can be great - but let's not pretend this start Dougie has made was not what we hoped for - surely we are allowed to express our disappointment.

No, I'm not saying it's been a great start, but on the same basis I probably wouldn't have said Allardyce made a great start either.

Don't think it's anything to do with brave faces, Coyle had to go - I suspect ED and Garty got to that conclusion without reading our posts too much. I think the decision to approach Freedman mystified most, but I think he still needs to be able to get some of his own players in. Allardyce who also didn't join us until October didn't really buck up until Feb after his first transfer window.

I guess i should have started a new post rather than quoting yours - I put a bit in brackets to try to say I wasn't referring to you..

what I mean is that I think it is perfectly OK and ordinary and acceptable for people to be disappointed with a poor start Dougie has made without those who are disappointed being accused of abandoning ship or not being behind the team etc..
because this IS a pretty poor start - and if it is only NOT POOR because it is every so slightly better than Coyle - then it's still POOR - piss poor!

Dougie has made a disappointing start - it is NOT obvious (not to me, anyway) what real tangible difference he has made to our defense and the way it is organised, nor does he seem to have made much difference to our fighting spirit (however you define that.) No - we shouldn't sack him - and yes - it is early days - but let's not try to pretend that shipping 5 goals at Peterborough was what any of us thought would be acceptable when he arrived...

I suspect that BL3 has queered the pitch for all those trying to point out that it really isn't yet THAT much better...

See I wouldn't class his start as poor or a disappointment. It's not the barnstorming run of dreams but we've only lost twice and actually are only holding onto leads against Blackpool, Barnsley and Huddersfield away from being 8th and two points off the play offs now.

Sure we haven't done that but we put ourselves in a position where small changes in fortune, decisions and play could have left us there and still could. We were a million zillion miles from that before.

I wanted a manager who would make us harder to beat get away from constantly picking a 4-4-2 that was failing and would organise us. Dougie has that broadly.

2 defeats in 10 is a huge step forward from where we were before and it's far more conceivable to suggest that in the future we could convert a few of those draws into wins than it was saying at we'd suddenly start winning the 5 out of 6 aways we lost before.

That's my opinion at least. We don't have good enough players in some positions and until that can be rectified we will continue to be inconsistent. I don't think we are miles away I honestly don't.

Happy Christmas everyone.

[Wandering Willy]

Sure we haven't done that but we put ourselves in a position where small changes in fortune, decisions and play could have left us there and still could. We were a million zillion miles from that before.

Not really - we were one goal away from staying in the Premier League.

[bobo the clown]

Whatever your position, whomever you prefer, the simple facts are that he may have brought new angle & it may well all turn out well, but he has not, yet, made results or performances so clearly better that we can be confident we're on the right track yet.

We may be, and it's certainly better than the last clown (& I know a thing or two about clowns), but there's a long way to go.

[BWFC_Insane]

Whatever your position, whomever you prefer, the simple facts are that he may have brought new angle & it may well all turn out well, but he has not, yet, made results or performances so clearly better that we can be confident we're on the right track yet.

We may be, and it's certainly better than the last clown (& I know a thing or two about clowns), but there's a long way to go.

No I get that. But I think we have to get out of the habit of thinking that there is another Allardyce round the corner who will lead us back to the promised land in 18 months.

As you say it's too early to tell. I like a lot of what I hear and enough of what I see to think he could do ok here. Certainly as you say better than the last bloke. But time will tell where on the shades of grey, rather than the black and white, this particular manager sits in Bolton history.

[thebish]

See I wouldn't class his start as poor or a disappointment. It's not the barnstorming run of dreams but we've only lost twice and actually are only holding onto leads against Blackpool, Barnsley and Huddersfield away from being 8th and two points off the play offs now.

See- i would - i hoped for FAR more - and peterborough didn't find us hard to beat.. I think we have been LUCKY not to have been beaten a couple of times - that may or may not be the same as "hard to beat" - but we're not keeping clean sheets and are pretty easy to score against... When he arrived - shipping FIVE to the bottom club was not on my spectrum of reasonable expectation...

[bristol_Wanderer3]

I think the issue Freedman has is the same as any new manager would have..we have a squad with many players who are good enough to play in the Prem, but we have an unstable defence/goalkeeper, a strike force that doesn't take chances, and a midfield that doesn't dominate possession. So we are always going to find it difficult to win a few games in a row regardless of who is the manager. Freedman has come in mid season....I feel it will be hard to judge him until he has had a couple of transfer windows, and strangely it may be that we need some less talented but more dependable players in before we become more effective in this league. I'm actually quite hopeful about Freedman and our club, he does seem to be the type of manager who might be able to combine modern management methods with our facilities and sports science expertise to get the best out of a group of players. I just hope he gets a chance to create some momentum.

[TKIZ!]

I'd just expected that we might at least get behind him from the start of his tenure? Some fans seem to have set Dougie up for a fall before he's been given a fair punt, which in my opinion is not ten games worth.

[a1]

I'd just expected that we might at least get behind him from the start of his tenure? Some fans seem to have set Dougie up for a fall before he's been given a fair punt, which in my opinion is not ten games worth.

after the stories i've been hearing. this guy at least pays his own way.

[SmokinFrazier]

I'm not going to start saying "Freedman out" or anything like that, but I don't think he'll get us promoted. I don't think he's shown any signs that he's a better manager than Coyle in the time he's been here, and unlike Coyle, there's been no success in his past either. Coyle deserved to be sacked because he wasn't going to get us promoted but Freedman isn't going to do that either.

I like Freedman but he wasn't the right choice. He talks a good game but the sad fact is, results and performances are unacceptable.