Bolton Wanderers FC

A response to Boro editor Stuart’s post on Big Sam is essential, especially the long ball accusation. Yes, Sam did employ a long ball tactic at times, but a number of managers in this league (of the likes of Benitez, Mourinho, Redknapp, O’Neill etc.) have also done so. But that accusation, when leveled with such vitriol at Allardyce, is tired, predictable and embarrassing for those who don’t know what they’re talking about. Does any true football fan honestly believe that international-class talents such as JJ Okocha, Youri Djorkaeff, Ivan Campo, Fernando Hierro & Nicolas Anelka would move to a club (and actually flourish there) where they’d spend their time in the middle of the park watching the ball continually fizz over their heads? Of course not and it is nonsense to suggest otherwise. That Djorkaeff loved his football here suggests otherwise. That Campo enjoyed such a special relationship with the fans suggests otherwise. That Okocha virtually owned the ‘Showboat’ section of Soccer AM for 2 years suggests otherwise. That Bolton effectively brought Anelka’s undoubted talents back to the forefront suggests otherwise.

In addition, Allardyce was instrumental in introducing innovative techniques behind the scenes. The backroom staff he assembled at The Reebok were second to none and his introduction of therapists, motivational coaches, specialist medical teams, alternative practitioners etc won praise from all of the players mentioned above and many more besides. His methods were analysed (and copied) by many prominent coaches and reaped results far greater than were expected.

There are other reasons why Allardyce should be considered a great coach but I’ll turn this into a minor thesis if I go into them all. Given time at Newcastle, he’d have been a success (nice move Mr Ashley, you clueless fool). It is widely accepted that he was by far the most impressive interviewee when interviewed for the England job a few years back, yet a certain Steve McClaren (Boro’s finest no doubt…) bizarrely landed the job and the less we say about that the better. He completely turned around the fortunes of Bolton Wanderers and on a relatively low budget. For that, all Bolton fans should be eternally grateful and others should cut the guy a bit of slack and ditch the tired long ball accusations.  

Who’s bright idea was this? The Reebok has digital advertising boards right on the pitch edge now and they are a pain in the arse. Beaming out fluorescent messages constantly, they are an eyesore and an irritating nuisance. The players claim they are not affected by these though I find that hard to believe. They divert your attention from the game and, no matter how much revenue they generate, they should be ditched immediately. I don’t know how many other grounds are also in this predicament but I can’t see how they could be popular with any fan. Ditch them now please – even though there are times when I wish there was something to watch other than the dross on the pitch, this isn’t the answer…

Firstly, it’s ridiculous that we’re having another international break so soon in the season. Sifaeli hit the nail on the head a few weeks back (see his musings here) and I share his sentiment. So, rather than reviewing any matches, I’m just hoping that the following come through unscathed and are fit and ready for the local derby v Blackburn next Saturday.

Gretar Steinsson & Heidur Helguson (Iceland v Holland)

Johan Elmander (Sweden v Portugal)

Tamir Cohen (Israel v Luxembourg)

Jussi Jaaskelainen (Finland v Azerbaijan)

Ricardo Gardner (Jamaica v Mexico)

Danny Shittu (Nigeria v Sierra Leone)

Ebi Smolarek (Poland v Czech Republic)

Joey O’Brien (R.O.Ireland v Cyprus (Wed))

Adam Bogdan (Hungary v Albania)

Fabrice Muamba (England U-21s v Wales)

Ali Al Habsi (Oman training camp in Spain )

Good luck fellas. Here’s hoping you get decent results to get the confidence levels up and are all fit and well upon your return next week.

Oh, and good luck England. I do want the national team to do well but they’ll always be a distant second to club football in my eyes.

This really gets on my pip. When it comes to this subject far too many people open their mouths before engaging their brain. Are modern day footballers on too much money? The simple answer is no, they’re not. The game of football is no longer just a popular sport, it is a multi-million pound business. And the top assets within that business are paid accordingly. The people who usually spout this shit tend to come out with supreme nonsense such as ‘compare what footballers earn to nurses, fire-fighters and such like – it’s obscene’. What utter codswallop. Yes, these people do a fantastic job and we should all be eternally grateful for that. But how much revenue do they generate for their employer? How marketable are they in the modern world? How many replica fire-fighter or nurse uniforms do they sell with their names on the back? The argument is a joke and the people who use it know it.

What really puts the icing on the cake is that a significant number of these people fuel the wages in modern football. Do they subscribe to Sky, especially Sky Sports? Do they pay their TV license fee and watch Match of the Day or England internationals on terrestrial TV? Do they watch live football? If so, they’re contributing to the huge sums paid out by such organisations to ensure Joe Public continues to watch their football coverage. Hence more money is paid in subscription fees, hence more money is passed onto clubs, hence more money is paid in wages to ensure British clubs continue to attract the world’s top talent and remain as entertaining and marketable as possible. The input of billionaire sugar-daddies may change things a little (in that money really doesn’t seem to matter too much to these people) but even these have a long-term investment plan. Quite simply, football is big business. Top footballers are the key assets within that business and, as such, are paid accordingly. To suggest otherwise is ridiculous and blinkered.

First things first; I hope Gael Clichy is fit and well and returns to action soon. But, and this is a huge but, the tackle from Kevin Davies was not a terrible one. He took the ball and the sheer momentum of his challenge carried him into Clichy too. So what was he to do? Figure out that he would win the ball but also connect with the player and subsequently not attempt the tackle and allow Clichy to steam up the pitch? Of course not. There was no malicious intent in the challenge; it was just an unfortunate outcome. The yellow card was probably warranted but it certainly shouldn't have been a red.

And yet, once again, the biased, blinkered, Bolton hating southern media have jumped straight on the bandwagon. One columnist today had Davies as the villain of the game, stating that Davies' dreadful challenge might easily have earned him a red card. Absolute bollocks. But that's not the only columnist today having a pop at Davo - they're all at it. Would the reaction be the same had Lampard, Fabregas or Gerrard made that tackle? Of course not. And that's what really rankles.

I remember David Batty, as he was approaching the end of his Newcastle career, claiming that he was glad he wasn't starting out in the game at that time as he believed that football would soon become a non-contact sport and that the art of tough-tackling would be driven out of the game. Recent evidence, especially the reaction to this incident, suggests that Batty may well have had a point. And that is a real shame.

Because they are all boring, non-committal and about as entertaining as a night on the razz with Roy Cropper from Corrie. Yes, yes, yes – this has been prompted by last night’s ‘Sport Relief’ tosh which poisoned the airwaves for 4 sodding hours. Now I can’t particularly comment on last night’s event as I didn’t watch it but I’ll wager good money now that it was a huge feast of arse with a side order of bum-biscuits. The cause is very noble indeed, that much I will admit, but do you really want to be spending your time watching the likes of Angus Deayton, Hugo Speer and Patrick Kielty flouncing around Wembley’s hallowed turf? Even the presence of some footballing legends (for my money Shearer is the greatest English centre-forward of the past 40 years) didn’t sell it to me. Take the genuine competitive edge (i.e. winning something that really matters) out of the game of football and you totally lose the element of the game which really makes it great. And don’t try telling me that last night’s game had a real competitive edge, as I don’t believe it for a minute.

The same applies to friendlies and testimonials. Utter tosh, the lot of them. One of the worst games of football I ever saw was a Bolton v Celtic game in August 1998; a testimonial for Jimmy Phillips. It was toilet of the highest order. So bad in fact, it almost made me want to go and watch a game of women’s football instead. Ban the lot. Play pre-season games behind closed doors and let us fans in when the meaningful matches are being played. That way we’ll stand a better chance of getting some value for money.

Note: The one and only exception to this came as a result of the antics of one Mr Boris Johnson, which are shown further down this page. But even that one glimmer of comedy gold does not make up for the rest of the garbage mentioned above.

It’s no good – my spleen has to be vented on this one. I cannot stand Rafa Benitez.

Jeez – I feel immeasurably better already, now that weight’s been lifted from my shoulders. It all started when his Liverpool team lost at the Reebok in his first season in charge back in August 2004 and he refused to shake Big Sam’s hand at the end of the match. That was arrogance and ignorance personified. To top that off, he accused Bolton of having the audacity to bully and harangue his precious team out of the game. The very cheek of it – how dare they? God knows, they should have laid down like meek little lambs and let Liverpool notch 5 or 6, just because they are ‘a big club’. In addition, good old Rafa failed to spot his beloved Stevie G stamping on Kevin Nolan’s chest in the same fixture in Jan 2006. The blinkered fool must have had Wengeritis on that particular day.

They’re the main reasons I don’t like the guy but there are others too. Firstly, he’s stopping me picking Liverpool players in my Fantasy League team, what with all the tinkering and fannying about with his starting line-up week-on-week. In conjunction with that, there’s his complete disrespect for the tradition of Liverpool FC. Now I’m not the biggest Liverpool fan in the land and I doubt they’d have ousted Man United or Chelsea from the Premiership summit in recent years. However, if he’d played a strong, settled line-up on a regular basis during his time in charge, they’d have been a damn sight closer to the crown than they actually have been. That simple fact would really gall me if I were an Anfield regular. I won’t mention his goatee beard (too easy a target) so I’ll leave my reasons as they are above. Get shut of the bloke and let the Yankee version of Cannon & Ball bring in David Hasselhoff & David Gest as joint-managers (evoking fond memories of the famed 90’s Evans & Houllier ‘dream-team’) – now that really would be worth watching.

Or ‘Why I hate getting wrecked before a game’.

This one will create some debate but I’ll state it here and now – I really don’t see the point in hitting the keg big time before a game. Football today isn’t cheap so it would be nice to remember what I’ve seen for my £20-£40, thanks very much. I don’t want to be up and off to the loo 4 times during every match, I don’t want to be heading downstairs at the 35 minute mark to beat the half-time bar rush and I don’t want to be discussing the match with mates the following day and not remembering significant moments due to being sozzled. I’m not knocking people who do it – you pays your money, you makes your choice – but I really don’t want to do it myself.

However, and here is the contradictory moment, I don’t have any beef in watching a game in the pub and downing a pint or eight. But hey – it’s the pub, that’s what they’re there for. I’m not paying a small fortune to get in, it’s easier getting to the loo when my perforated bladder gives way and, quite simply, it just feels right. But then again, it will do – we’re in a pub, not a football stadium. I’ll stick to my coffee at the ground for the time being and continue my metamorphism into a sweater-donning, flat-cap wearing, Werthers Originals sucking old goat. Until we get to the pub that is…

Formed 1874. Founder members. Three FA Cups in 20’s. Nat Lofthouse – Lion of Vienna. Super Frank Worthington – Elvis fanatic. 80’s doldrums. Colin Todd – back on track. Big Sam – miracle worker. Djorkaeff, Okocha & Campo – legends. UEFA Cup. Anelka – world class. What’s he doing here? Lack of cash – goodbye Big Sam. Thanks for the memories. Megson – same all over again? The jury’s out…