Fans' forum this coming monday

[Bruce Rioja]

Official BWFC ‏@OfficialBWFC 1h
Official. The manager confirms that Zat Knight will be the club captain for the forthcoming season. #BWFC


No getting rid of Knight then

Utterly beyond belief!

I would love to know what all these managers see in him. Apart from his height I am struggling..

DF says he is a role model off field for the younger players and has 4-5 leaders on the pitch. Assume he means he can get the dressing room together and shows the youth how to go about training.

What about the fact that he's one of the worse players in the club's history though?

[Bijou Bob]

You keep banging that drum Bruce, but no way is knight one if the worst players in the club history.

[adamworthy2002]

Might as well have given it N'Gog

Might give him the confidence to score more N'Goals and to 'Put his foot through the ball' and be stop trying to be Thierry Henry (Dougies words, not mine)

[Madrigal]

The collective moan when Zat (Zak) Knight was announced as captain by Dougie was hilarious.

Well, he said ZK wasn't aware of it yet ... he has time to change his mind and no-one will know !!

Got to say when the groan came he sounded (to me anyway) that he was already rethinking it. Said he had 2 or 3 that were capable of doing the role.

[Bruce Rioja]

You keep banging that drum Bruce, but no way is knight one if the worst players in the club history.

Yes he is. Read also Fulham and Aston Villa.

[bwfcdan94]

Official BWFC ‏@OfficialBWFC 1h
Official. The manager confirms that Zat Knight will be the club captain for the forthcoming season. #BWFC


No getting rid of Knight then

Utterly beyond belief!

I would love to know what all these managers see in him. Apart from his height I am struggling..

DF says he is a role model off field for the younger players and has 4-5 leaders on the pitch. Assume he means he can get the dressing room together and shows the youth how to go about training.

What about the fact that he's one of the worse players in the club's history though?

Top man Brucey except he is the worst not one of the worst.

[BWFC_Insane]

Wow. That was a bit different to the last one.

Overall impression I got was how impressed I was with Dougie, in terms of the concrete ideas he laid out, his beliefs and strategies. The stuff from Mark Leather and Brian Prestidge was interesting too, especially in terms of the cutting edge analysis we do.

No way I could report everything on here I will try and summarise the main points, hopefully I will remember.

1) Dougie would like to buy Jay Spearing. As it stands the price isn't at a point we can afford or would represent suitable 'value' to the club. Dougie says he himself feels Spearing is value for the money being asked but its not just about that, the club aren't in a position to pay the asking price. We are still in there working on a possible deal.

2) Moritz came up and was offered a deal. He wanted more money. Dougie was quick to point out he didn't want 'too much money' just more than the club was prepared to offer. Read into that what you will.

3) Frustration with the transfer situation. Dougie said he was frustrated that he couldn't turn the club around as quickly as he would like. But he understood where the club were financially. He feels there are several players who can't contribute what he wants but they are on big contracts, not easy to shift. And he thinks there are four young players, Eaves, Vela, Clough and Odelusi I think, who can contribute this season, but only in short bursts. In short he wants some more signings but wants to ensure value.

4) Holden had signed his deal before going to the USA. Dougie was watching the game last night. Spoke to Stu at 2 in the morning. Dougie does not have much optimism as he says watching the knee in the incident it looked like a 'bad one' but he is having a scan around about now.

5) Ngog. Dougie spoke about Ngog a lot and how he sees him playing in behind a striker. He sees this as a key position. Clearly rates Ngog a lot but felt he was very 'lost' when he arrived, so he is working on how to get the best out of him.

6) Systems, was asked about 4-4-2 vs 4-5-1. Dougie explained he doesn't think we have two strikers capable of playing in a 2 when NGog is out. He feels that if your striker add something as a pair it balances out losing a midfield player. But if they don't given how competitive midfield is in this league you need an extra one in there. He said he felt he got the system against Blackpool wrong. He thought that keeping the game calm for half an hour would have been best but he should have started with 2 up front and gone for it from the off. Said over a 46 game season he believes 2 up front only works on limited basis.

7) Zat Knight as captain, got some groans. Dougie said he knew what people thought about him but that his experience was different and he was in training the best role model for younger players we had. Also felt he was most consistent player at end of season. Which brought some laughs and again he acknowledged the perception of Knight but feels he is the right person to do the job.

Alan Nixon. He was asked about whether Nixon had an 'in' at Bolton etc. This was the one question he didn't really answer. Sort of went on about generic rumours, confirmed that Nixon had got a lot of stories about Bolton right, and said that there will always be rumours but he will tell it to the fans straight, Dougie that is not Nixon. Not really sure it was a clear answer either way on that one. Though he did say that whilst he would love Rhodes, Blackburn wouldn't sell him for anything like we would be able to afford so its a non starter.

Think that was the main points. Few other things about why he left Palace and the like. Will add if I think of anything else.

[TKIZ!]

Nice summary BWFCi, cheers Fella

[BWFC_Insane]

Oh one thing I missed. Dougie feels of the current squad 10 players are good enough on a consistent basis to mount a promotion challenge. But feels we need more like 14/15 of those players. So still work to do and can't be done all this summer either.
Oh and despite losing he felt Leicester away was our best performance last season.

[malcd1]

A thank you from me too BWFCi.

A few interesting nuggets especially about N'gog.

[wanderers_on_tour]

Cheers for that BWFCi,

Seems that Zat Knights hearts in the wrong place even if his head isn't...

Just hope this doesn't make him a concrete starter if, and maybe when he goes off on one. 80% of the time I think he's alright for the club but it isn't an ideal situation. Happy enough to let his contract run down and if he has a good season it could be a real bonus.

[thebish]

If I thought Freedman would give a proper answer, I'd go along and ask why he played 4-5-1 against Leicester and Blackpool, despite the fact that 4-4-2 had been far more successful for us all year, and if he thinks he got it wrong. If he was being honest, he'd admit he messed it up but I imagine he'd just trot out a line about being 'versatile' or whatever.

Or he might ask why you think you know better than him..

Df admits mistake with team selection against blackpool. Should have played 2 up front...

hmmmmm.........

looks like you were both wrong!

[boltonboris]

Managed to ask him if he he's not being backed as much as he'd like to bring in new players, cab the young players he's earmarked potentially come in to play consistently (I meant this as in regularity AND performance wise).

In a nutshell it was a resounding "No" and he admitted his frustrations in the market, but reiterated that he's only after value for money and said for possibly the fifth time "like Jay Spearing. I know that he's value at that price. But I don't sign the cheques"

[boltonboris]

Some won't like this either, but Dougie admitted that Nixon "does have knowledge within the club, and has for some time". Clearly annoyed at a leak, but I think he's aware that he can use it positively too.

Highlight was the old gimmer bird who basically asked Dougie why Ngog can't kick the ball straight and went on (in detail), to discuss his technique! She made me piss!

[boltonboris]

Managed to ask him if he he's not being backed as much as he'd like to bring in new players, cab the young players he's earmarked potentially come in to play consistently (I meant this as in regularity AND performance wise).

In a nutshell it was a resounding "No" and he admitted his frustrations in the market, but reiterated that he's only after value for money and said for possibly the fifth time "like Jay Spearing. I know that he's value at that price. But I don't sign the cheques"

Does he sound happy here, or disgruntled? I don't doubt that he won't give anything other than 100%, but if he's not being backed and someone bigger comes along...

To me, he seemed a bit despondent about the lack of movement. Made it clear that we're short in areas and that he's got players that he thinks are good value and saleable, but the board are holding back. Also said a worrying quote about leaving palace because they were bidding short on players he felt were affordable (namely Rhodes)

Phil was in attendance, so take what you will from that.

[BWFC_Insane]

Managed to ask him if he he's not being backed as much as he'd like to bring in new players, cab the young players he's earmarked potentially come in to play consistently (I meant this as in regularity AND performance wise).

In a nutshell it was a resounding "No" and he admitted his frustrations in the market, but reiterated that he's only after value for money and said for possibly the fifth time "like Jay Spearing. I know that he's value at that price. But I don't sign the cheques"

Does he sound happy here, or disgruntled? I don't doubt that he won't give anything other than 100%, but if he's not being backed and someone bigger comes along...

Don't think it's as clear cut as that. Think he is frustrated at the big contracts given out to certain players that he's now stuck with and can't replace with ones who he would like to work with. Frustrated that he'd like to spend more money sure but he did make the point several times that he understands the responsibility to spend wisely and made the point that Eddie is the sole owner so has to be happy.

He's bloody ambitious though, I suspect if a bigger club came in for him he'd be off in a flash.

Having said that got the impression he is serious about building something here and genuinely believes in the club.

[boltonboris]

I liked what he said about Sam when somebody asked him "looking back on past successes"

He responded "why look back? Why can't we look forward for once. I've had this problem since a first walked through the doors"

[Bruce Rioja]

Cheers chaps. Any mention of the SKD episode?

[adamworthy2002]

Cheers chaps. Any mention of the SKD episode?

Not that I remember, surprising really.

[BWFC_Insane]

Cheers chaps. Any mention of the SKD episode?

Only in passing when discussin Stuart Holden signing a new deal. He said we had other senior players like Kevin who were sat down and talked to and that contracts were renewed not out of sentimentality but through what it was felt the player offered the club in the future.

Big theme overall from DF was that the club as a whole looks back far too much, fans included and he's trying to change that mentality.