Freedman out!

[Lost Leopard Spot]

You can teach management but you cannot teach leadership. Great managers aren't managers, they are first and foremost leaders... Coaches on the other hand...

[Hoboh]

I think listening to Fergie every day for 20+ years, his way of coaching would be practically ingrained in your head. That said, Giggs, Scholes etc would make good coaches, but managing involves a whole lot more.

It's the whole lot more that we don't necessarily see that is also super important and why Dougie deserves some credit.

For what?

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

I think listening to Fergie every day for 20+ years, his way of coaching would be practically ingrained in your head. That said, Giggs, Scholes etc would make good coaches, but managing involves a whole lot more.

It's the whole lot more that we don't necessarily see that is also super important and why Dougie deserves some credit.

It might be but that doesn't mean you will have the force of personality to carry it off. It's different being a coach where you can pick up and replicate techniques and sessions.

Add to the fact some players don't even know what day it is. Rio, I'm looking at you!

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I think one of the problems with football in England at the moment is how easily ex-professionals get a job. A prime example would be at United right now with Giggs, Neville, Scholes and Butt all having senior roles in player development and tactics but what have they done to earn that position? They were exceptional players, there's no doubt about that, but being a great player doesn't mean they'll end up being great coaches or managers. Alex Ferguson wasn't a great player, Arsene Wenger did very little and Mourinho didn't reach a high level either, yet they're the three greatest managers of the Premier League era and arguably up there with the greatest managers in history. The manager of one of the best teams ever, Arrigo Sacchi, wasn't an experienced international or multiple Serie A winner either and the LMA manager for this year is Brendan Rodgers who quite playing at an early age because of injury.

There are plenty of people in football who know the game inside out yet they aren't given a chance to manage because they weren't good enough themselves and that's wrong. I'm not sure why it keeps happening either. Maybe it's because chairman want to satisfy fans by hiring someone well known? Maybe they think a high level ex-pro or club legend will be able to motivate the players and get more out of them? I'm not sure but there are plenty of managers around now who don't know what they're doing yet they walk into well paid, important jobs because they were good at kicking a ball themselves.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Me too. Especially if it stops wazzocks like Jonathan Pearce, as United fall behind and the camera lovingly pans past a management bench full of thirtysomethings with little experience of coaching or pretty much anything except success as an ear-bitten player, saying "wouldn't it be great to tap into that experience?". I've got an idea: the after-dinner speaking circuit... Ryan could tell that one about getting the wives together...

[bobo the clown]

So, Dougie says some players early season were disruptive and really only playing to get themselves in the window for a move.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/11 ... m/?ref=mrs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Clearly that covers his views on Andrews and Mears then. Sordell maybe ??? Can't be Eagles as the guy was injured in the first match. So who else ?

DOUGIE Freedman has lifted the lid on conflict in the Reebok dressing room that destroyed Wanderers’ start to the season.

Speaking for the first time about the underlying issues that contributed to the club’s worst start to a campaign for 110 years, the Scot revealed how morale in the first 13 games was wrecked by a civil war. Despite the problems, Freedman said he was proud to have settled the internal rift that set his side back significantly before mid-October. Heavy defeats at Blackburn, Nottingham Forest and Brighton plus home reverses against Leeds and Reading put the Whites rock bottom of the Championship after eight games.

Within the Reebok walls, Freedman claims the influence of “certain individuals” – who the manager refused to name – became a negative issue on the pitch. “Out of respect to certain individuals I’m not going to start highlighting specific things that have gone on,” he told The Bolton News. “Within time it will come out and rear its head, exactly what we have had to put up with in terms of the attitude towards playing for the football club and helping the club first and foremost, rather than themselves. “But I don’t want to be disrespectful – they have got careers to be getting on with. And when they do get on with it, I think they will realise this place isn’t as bad as they thought.”

Freedman confirmed the disruption was coming from within his squad but that he redressed the balance after the introduction of loanees Liam Feeney, Kevin McNaughton and Neil Danns. Before the loan trio’s arrival, the Scot admits some of his players were not mentally focused enough to cope with the pressures of scrapping in the bottom three, and that his team too often became a collection of individuals.

“Off the field came on to the field – that was the problem,” the manager said. “Those attitudes and mindsets came on to the field and you were watching a side that was playing decent football in the first 13 games but as soon as anything happened to them, there would be no 'team' before themselves. I feel quite proud of how I addressed that problem. We didn’t sink. We didn’t go under. We kept on working very hard towards what we wanted to do, and that’s win games of football.”

Freedman has also taken his share of the blame for the poor start, from which Wanderers never recovered. The Whites boss admits his policy of selecting players who were angling for moves elsewhere “backfired” – and that he could have turned to his younger players sooner. “There have been so many ups and downs, we need that little bit of consistency from the off. We haven’t had it the last two seasons – and I have to take the blame for what happened in the first 13 games, if I could do my time again of course I’d pick one or two different people, or a couple of the youngsters who played the other week,” he said. “But we were in a position where we were playing some players maybe to let them get an opportunity to get away for".

... or is he just full of shit ?

[thebish]

^ didn't we do all this last week?

[Enoch]

^ didn't we do all this last week?

Leave him alone, he's enjoying himself!

[bobo the clown]

Well, it's this week the quotes are in the paper where he's now actually "explaining" what happened in those first weeks and how he was undermined by ne'er-do-wells. .... & you're so fond of quotes, unless they say what you don't like & then it's boring.

Anyway, haven't you got some candles to try & blow out, & some cake to eat ?

[thebish]

Well, it's this week the quotes are in the paper where he's now actually "explaining" what happened in those first weeks and how he was undermined by ne'er-do-wells. .... & you're so fond of quotes, unless they say what you don't like & then it's boring.

Anyway, haven't you got some candles to try & blow out, & some cake to eat ?

it's this week they're in the BN, you mean - they were quoted here last week by those more well connected!

[jaffka]

I like Groundhog day.

Duggie out!

[SmokinFrazier]

You can't blame the players for lacking faith in Freedman and the performances do indicate there were problems away from the pitch. No player should be excused for not trying their best but I'm sure they see Freedman for what he is and found it hard to get up for games under him. A key part of being a manager is player management which has been atrocious in his time here. Fans will probably take the managers side, I'd guess largely because footballers are seen as 'overpaid prima donnas who should just get on with it', but if his management is having a detrimental effect on player morale, that's his fault and he deserves the blame. Sadly, those who realise he's useless will be shipped out and replaced with players Freedman likes, typically those who run around like a dog chasing a stick.

[Prufrock]

I like this latest of football fan false syllogisms:

Some really good footballers don't charge about all over the place.

Some pretty average footballers charge all over the place to make up for a lack of talent.

Therefore, all players who don't charge about are good players.

I'd rather have a useless prick who ran about than a useless prick who didn't. And we've had plenty of the latter recently.

Some good 'uns would be good too, like.

[bobo the clown]

Very, very good players don't appear to dash about because they create space, read the game well and control the ball easily.

Very, very good players are few & far between.

[jaffka]

Very, very good players don't appear to dash about because they create space, read the game well and control the ball easily.

Very, very good players are few & far between.

Gazza

Franz Beckenbauer

Gullit

Hoddle

[Harry Genshaw]

"you were watching a side that were playing some decent football in the first 13 games"

Aye, the feckin opposition

[TANGODANCER]

Not really sure that Dougie's gas-bagging statement said much. I hate the concept of finding victims instead of solutions. A managers job is to weld a side together, not split them apart and if he can't do that without getting rid of half the side, then what exactly has he got to be proud of, finishing fifteenth in the Championship (or whatever)? He'd be far better off patting himself on the back by results, not self-printed diplomas and self-serving interviews. What's behind is behind and the only way he'll convince me of anything is by improvement and putting Bolton Wanderes back where they belong in the respect stakes. Right now all he seems to have done is turned to a new blank page in the notebook. Pretty much anybody can do that.

[Hoboh]

Very, very good players don't appear to dash about because they create space, read the game well and control the ball easily.

Very, very good players are few & far between.

Gazza

Franz Beckenbauer

Gullit

Hoddle

I'd add Scholes to a list of players who were everywhere but never looked rushed and in his case hardly noticed!
Not quite the middle two's league but as good as the other two any day, infact I'd take him over the other two!

[Prufrock]

Very, very good players don't appear to dash about because they create space, read the game well and control the ball easily.

Very, very good players are few & far between.

That's not quite right though, IMO.

Some very, very good players don't appear to dash about because they create space, read the game well and control the ball easily.

Some do though. Ronaldo and Messi are both full of 'bustle'.

It would be interesting to see what the prozone stuff would have made of the players you mentioned though. To me, Xavi looks like the sort of player you mention, he never seems rushed, or to charge about, yet the stats show that he very often runs further than anybody else on the pitch. Is it that those players do charge about, it's just they're so far ahead of eveyone they do the running before you've noticed? I dunno!

[thebish]

nolly was clearly ace in his last season for us... he never rushed about - he never left a 5yd radius of the centre-circle!

[LeverEnd]

Not really sure that Dougie's gas-bagging statement said much. I hate the concept of finding victims instead of solutions. A managers job is to weld a side together, not split them apart and if he can't do that without getting rid of half the side, then what exactly has he got to be proud of, finishing fifteenth in the Championship (or whatever)? He'd be far better off patting himself on the back by results, not self-printed diplomas and self-serving interviews. What's behind is behind and the only way he'll convince me of anything is by improvement and putting Bolton Wanderes back where they belong in the respect stakes. Right now all he seems to have done is turned to a new blank page in the notebook. Pretty much anybody can do that.

I suspect (and have been told by someone far more ITK than me) that he wants every player to be a blank page. Instead of working to players' strengths he tries to turn them into what he thinks they should be. This is fine with youth teamers but sums up why he seems unable to get the best out of some seasoned pros. Not all of course, Mills has re-emerged under him, fair play on that one.
This approach is fine if you have the luxury of a clean slate but very few managers do. Good ones can exploit the strengths and talents in the squad with flexibility. That's clearly not the Dougie way. If it works hats off to the guy, but if his new bunch of good eggs (yes men?) don't start winning early then the club should not hesitate to send him off to educate someone else's fans.