TravellingWanderer

My first was when we beat Walsall 8-1.

Scunthorpe away for me, only up the road from my Mum and Dad's and it's a ground I have not been to yet. My prediction is Blackburn at home or Citeh away

3-2 win, another late Cahill winner, Klasnic and Elmander with the others.

Be interesting to see the figures for now rather than from over 12 months ago, I would have expected the wage bill to be down, as well as the cuts on the playing side I would think we have a smaller backroom staff than BSA built up. According to the stats, out attendances were up last season, maybe due to giving larger away allocations, but still the figures were higher. The lack of cup games last season may have had an impact but then how much do we really make from a Cup tie which only attracts 8000 people. A debt of around ?50 million is probably a lot less than most, but there are a few saleable assets on the playing staff, and obviously the hotel has a market value, so our finances aren't as bad as some. But if we did go down, I think it may be a while before we returned. This I guess is why finishing outside the bottom 3 is our aim at the beginning of each season. Playing attractive football comes a distant second. On this basis the positions that Megson has recruited for does make sense. This aim is rapidly becoming the aim for more than half the clubs in the Premier League. We copuld have stuck with Sammy Lee and tried to play more open entertaining football, but we would now be watching an attempt at entertaining football against the likes of Scunthorpe, Doncaster and Blackpool.

I thought McCann had a good game, but don't think we need him and Muamba I think the defence is starting to get a greater understanding which will hopefully make it look a bit more solid. The only change I would make to last nights starting 11 would be Cohen for McCann. I don't think Gardner or Lee are ready to play 90 minutes yet. Lee would be effective to bring on as their defence tires.

I think Heitinga's wages may have been an issue. I think with regard to generating money by selling, Megson was in a catch 22 situation, he wouldn't offload anyone without signing a replacement but the board wouldn't sanction any more players on the wage bill, so he had to sell first and then hope to be able to bring someone in to replace them, if we didn't then he would be working on a smaller squad than what he sees as the minimum size. Otherwise I think Sh!ttu and McCann would have gone to Portsmouth. *which is the only one that counts

I don't think any of the new signings have been helped by the fact that 3 of the back 4 are new. Normally if you bring one player in, then the rest of the defence are used to playing alongside each other and they just have to work on integrating one player into the new system. I just think that it will take time for them all to get used to each other, personally I would only have brought Knight in, though if Steinsson was injured then I suppose it would have to have been two of them. If Knight is as good as an in form AOB then he is by definition an improvement as I don't think we have seen the best of Knight yet, I do feel that he will form a good partnership with Cahill. I wasn't too disappointed with the signing of Robinson as cover for Jlloyd but not as a replacement, hopefully Jlloyd will keep his place for the next few games. Still not decided on Ricketts, I feel that he is a similar player to Steinsson and with a few more games as part of the new unit we will probably see this.

I felt that we played reasonably well for an hour on Saturday, bit worried how the heads drop once we go one down, however, we do need someone to start putting the chances away, no reason why Taylor and Davies can't repeat last years record, so if we can get someone in to also hit double figures I think we will be just above the drop zone. I don't completely agree that the summer signings haven't improved the team, as I feel that Knight is a clear improvement, Davis is a decent addition and Lee looks promising, it will take time to settle in and get used to the Premier League but aside from the first few minutes against Sunderland he hasn't looked too out of place. Hopefully he gets at least half an hour tonight.

Last nights team was pretty much our third choice team, though I can't understand why some of the players that are on the bench tonight didn't get a run out last night, even more so the like of Hunt, Basham, Shittu who aren't even on the bench. They say that when a player has been out for a while they need a few games to get back the match fitness back, but then the players not appearing in the first team week in week out aren't getting any match practice. That said there are a couple of promising players who played last night, one of whom was on the bench for the full Australia squad last week. He is more likely to play for Australia before he plays for us.

We need to go and attack early on after their result tonight, doubt we will though, wouldn't be suprised to see Samuel replacing McCann, whoever comes in will be more defence minded than attack.

Lee - Will take time, but we will have to learn to give him the ball and then get enough players forward to support him. Knight - I just hope it is just a case of taking a couple of games to get used to playing with Cahill Robinson - Did Ok but think Samuel is a better option Ricketts - Confidence seemed to drop as the the game wore on. Davis - Could have been the hero, but other than that didn't really impress that much, but then no outfield player did Completely agree about not learning about throwing in so many new players, at the end 6 of the outfield 10 were making their debut, Knight should have been the only one of the new ones that started. It's only one game, so wouldn't change too much next week, probably just the one, replace McCann as he is not a wide midfield player.

It's Stuart Pearce's influence, I expect he wants as many of his U21 squad to be challenging as possible. Pearce did rave about him during the U21 championship and I assume Capello has at least seen the videos. If Capello wants a more specialist defensive midfielder then if Muamba has a good season then he could well make the squad next summer.

Megson doesn't consider Hunt as part of his squad so if we offload him I don't think it makes much difference to the size of the squad.

Was expected to retire from football, but seems to have changed his mind. I think we are only being linked due to an error in one of the main papers saying Allardyce was trying to bring him to Bolton.

Wasn't he one of the players that went to Gartside and asked for Lee to be sacked? The other two (Speed and Nolan) have now gone as well. Apparently he didn't mix with the rest of the Birmingham squad when he was on loan, maybe he felt championship football was beneath him

Doubt Lee will start many games in the first few months so wouldn't be suprised to see Steinsson pushed forward a few times, some will see it as a defensive move, playing 2 right backs and all that, but he is one of the best crossers of a ball we have, so provided he doesn't drop too deep and revert to his defensive tendencies.

Provided he was second of two strikers we bring in this summer, second in terms of quality of player rather than time frame I wouldn't have a problem with signing him. If he was the only striker we bring in, then I wouldn't be too happy.

Probably a good thing as he hasn't been very successful with his dips into the loan market. Blackburn are after that Russian striker we allegedly made a bid for in January Pogrebnyak, maybe we will go back in for him.

Samuel started 38 games last season, Steinsson 37, we can't rely on them both being so injury and suspension free next season. When Steinsson was out we ended up with a young lad making his full debut out of position. We did need cover and the way transfer fees have been 3 million for 2 players is not outrageous spending. If we as I expect offload Hunt, we will recoup some of this money. As for the reference to wing backs, Megson's preferred formation at previous clubs was to use wingbacks, so there is some logic in this signing, the only issue being we need 2 centre halfs before we can consider this option.

I can't see many leaving, Hunt is obviously the favourite, Samuel can provide cover at right back with Robinson at left back if needed. Basham or Joey O'Brien are probably also ahead of him in the pecking order. With the signing of Sean Davis, I think McCann will play a lesser role but I would keep him for another year.

Seen it in a couple of the cheap book shops recently, had a flick but still wasn't tempted.

Lee Chung-yong - Just turned 21 supposedly one of Asia's hottest prospects, Ok not proven at the highest level, but capped 16 times by Korea. No complaints if we sign him. Zat Knight - Villa bought him to replace Cahill, personally I would rather have Cahill, but you need 2 centre halfs, and personally I think he is better than O'Brien and Sh!ttu, so happy if this one comes to fruition Bodde - This is the one I am least sure about, the main question being how long it takes him to recover from the injury and then get up to the speed of the Premier League. Other clubs have had success bringing players in from lower leagues and I think from what I hear there is no reason to doubt he could be a Premier League player, but I feel we need someone fit from the beginning of the season.

Celtic are showing an interest in Robinson, I think it is a case of waiting a couple of days to see if they beat our offer, if not they will accept ours. I wouldn't pay any more. Nolan may be a better player than Davies but then we paid a lot less for Davies than we received for Nolan. Personally I feel that we had seen the best of Nolan, he needed a change, and yes he may move on from Newcastle and have a good few seasons, but I doubt we would have got the same out of him. Davies though is younger and a very good prospect, and I feel in time will prove to be a good bit of business.

He has said before he would love to come back to Bolton one day, but I doubt we would pay the wages the likes of West Ham and Spurs would pay him.

Megson has been given a limited budget to bring in the 5 or 6 players he needs. He obviously thinks he needs another left back, and if he can bring one in for 750,000, it will mean that he has brought in 2 of the players he needs without spending too much of his budget, therefore allowing us to bid that little bit more for hopefully the centre half, creative midfielder and forward player we need. I don't agree with the argument we have two players who can provide cover, as if we move Taylor to left back we then need someone to replace him furher forward, and would thus lose one of our main players in our starting 11. 750,000 is not a bad fee for a player to provide competition and cover, especially when Liverpool have paid 17.5 million for a full back who can't defend.