SmallBryan

Lacina Traore at Romainian club CFR Cluj, impressed in the Champions League last season, should be just within our budget.

Does anyone know much about Craig Dawson at Rochdale? I've not seen much of him actually playing, but i've heard a lot of good things about this lad. I'm surprised we haven't been linked with him in the media considering him being a local lad tipped for a promising future Middlesbrough have reportedly offered ?400,000, but Rochdale are supposedly holding out for a a seven figure sum. I think it would be worth a gamble as cover with the chance of future progression, a better option than Shittu??? Also another name to throw into the mix, seeing as we missed out on Dindane, I think we should have a look at his Ivory Coast team mate, Lacina Traore, 6"7, fairly quick, still only 20, would fit in well with Coyles style of play. Similar type of player to Adebayor. Should be available for around ?3.5m, Arsenal have been sniffing, but nothing concrete.

The way I interpret the rules, nationality doesn't come into it, so British citizenship wouldn't actually be that beneficial. It appears that to qualify as a homegrown player you would have to have spent three years between the ages of 16-21 at a club who is a member of either the English or Welsh FA. Here is a list of all Premier League clubs with their homegrown quota. Arsenal Sol Campbell Cesc Fabregas Alexandre Song Johan Djourou Carlos Vela Nicklas Bendtner Denilson Theo Walcott Aston Villa Emile Heskey Luke Young Richard Dunne Stephen Warnock Nicky Shorey Steve Sidwell James Collins Nigel Reo-Coker Ashley Young Stewart Downing Curtis Davies James Milner Gabriel Agbonlahor Birmingham City Maik Taylor Kevin Phillips Lee Bowyer Stephen Carr Damien Johnson Stuart Parnaby David Murphy Keith Fahey Roger Johnson Liam Ridgwell Ben Foster Cameron Jerome Craig Gardner Scott Dann Blackburn Rovers Jason Roberts Paul Robinson David Dunn Keith Andrews Jason Brown Mark Bunn Blackpool Jason Euell Brett Ormerod Danny Coid Gary Taylor-Fletcher Ben Burgess Matthew Gilks Ian Evatt Paul Rachubka Keith Southern Andy Butler Daniel Nardielo Rob Edwards David Vaughan Billy Clarke Nel Eardley Alex Baptiste Ishmel Demontagnac Bolton Wanderers Gavin McCann Kevin Davies Paul Robinson Zat Knight Danny Shittu Sean Davis Andy O'Brien Sam Ricketts Matty Taylor J'Lloyd Samuel Gary Cahill Fabrice Muamba Mark Davies Chris Basham Chelsea Frank Lampard John Terry Ashley Cole Joe Cole Ross Turnbull Everton Carlo Nash Phil Neville Leon Osman Tony Hibbert Phil Jagielka Leighton Baines Seamus Coleman James Vaughan Victor Anichebe Fulham Danny Murphy Damien Duff Aaron Hughes Simon Davies Andy Johnson Paul Konchesky Bobby Zamora Dicksen Etuhu Stephen Kelly Chris Baird David Stockdale Liverpool Jamie Carragher Steven Gerrard Glen Johnson Stephen Darby Jay Spearing Manchester City Shay Given Craig Bellamy Wayne Bridge Stuart Taylor Gareth Barry Shaun Wright-Phillips Joleon Lescott Nedum Onuoha Stephen Ireland Adam Johnson Javan Vidal Michael Johnson Micah Richards Manchester United Paul Scholes Ryan Giggs Gary Neville Rio Ferdinand Wes Brown Michael Owen Owen Hargreaves Michael Carrick John O'Shea Darren Fletcher Wayne Rooney Jonny Evans Darron Gibson Newcastle United Steve Harper Joey Barton Alan Smith Shola Ameobi Mike Williamson Kevin Nolan Wayne Routledge Ryan Taylor Danny Simpson Leon Best Steven Taylor Danny Guthrie Andrew Carroll Stoke City Rory Delap Andy Griffin James Beattie Danny Higginbotham Steve Simonson Dave Kitson Danny Collins Liam Lawrence Mattie Etherington Dean Whitehead Danny Pugh Andrew Davies Andy Wilkinson Glenn Whelan Ryan Shawcross Sunderland Nyron Nosworthy George McCartney Michael Turner Andy Reid Kenwyne Jones Matthew Kilgannon Darren Bent Kieron Richardson Anton Ferdinand Phil Bardsley Fraizer Campbell Trevor Carson Lee Cattermole Tottenham Hotspur James Walker Robbie Keane Ledley King Jonathan Woodgate Jermain Defoe Peter Crouch Jermaine Jenas Michael Dawson David Bentley Ben Alnwick Gareth Bale Aaron Lennon Tom Huddlestone Kyle Naughton West Bromwich Albion Dean Kiely Jonathan Greening Jerome Thomas Chris Brunt Scott Carson Luke Moore Ishmael Miller Leon Barnett James Morrison Giles Barnes Simon Cox Steven Reid West Ham United Kieron Dyer Matthew Upson Daniel Gabiddon Robert Green Scott Parker Carlton Cole Jonathan Spector Mark Noble Jack Collison Zavon Hines James Tomkins Wigan Athletic Mike Pollitt Emmerson Boyce Jason Koumas Chris Kirkland Titus Bramble Gary Caldwell Ben Watson Wolverhampton Wanderers Jody Craddock Matt Hill Karl Henry Kevin Foley David Jones Greg Halford David Edwards Carl Ikeme Stephen Ward Andrew Keogh Andrew Surman Matt Jarvis Michael Kightly Sylvain Ebanks-Blake George Elokobi Richard Stearman George Friend Wayne Hennessey

This rule won't really make any difference, as it's quite rare that a club will be looking to loan a player out over the age of 21 to gain experience. This rule basically means you can't have a squad of more than 25 players over the age of 21 and then you can't have any more than 17 players who didn't spend three years before the age of 21 at an English or Welsh academy. Although don't know if that would mean if we ever saw the likes of Ian Wright, Stuart Pearce or own postie Jeff Smith again, that they would then be classed as foreign because they came from non-league.

As it stands HG Gavin McCann 1 HG Kevin Davies 2 HG Paul Robinson 3 HG Zat Knight 4 HG Danny Shittu 5 HG Sean Davis 6 HG Andy O'Brien 7 HG Sam Ricketts 8 HG Matty Taylor 9 HG J'Lloyd Samuel 10 HG Gary Cahill 11 HG Fabrice Muamba 12 HG Mark Davies 13 HG Chris Basham 14 FGN Lee Chung-Yong 15 FGN Stuart Holden 16 FGN Tamir Cohen 17 FGN Ali Al-Habsi 18 FGN Johan Elmander 19 FGN Gretar Steinsson 20 FGN Mustapha Riga 21 FGN Ricardo Gardner 22 FGN Jussi Jaaskelainen 23 U21 Tope Obadeyi U21 Danny Ward

I can see Coyle making a move for Alan Hutton, Scott Brown and Andrew Driver this summer with Tamir Cohen, Johan Elmander and Matty Taylor being moved on to bring in some funds. I think we'll need to do as much as we can to get a proper goalscorer, which as we know are a premium, so i'd love us to make an ambitous move for Michael Owen, would be worth a try. Even if he only played half a season, i'm sure he'd still bag half a dozen league goals. It looks like Coyle won't move away much from 4-4-2, but i'd be interested in us deploying a 4-1-4-1 approach, where we would have Muamba anchoring the midfield and the four midfielders in front of him, all with less defensive responsiblities and all being capable with posession of the ball, then having a intelligent forward like Owen up top on his own making clever runs, where players like Lee, Wilshere if we can get him in and again and maybe Mark Davies being able to provide the killer ball and also arriving late from deep themselves to support the attack. We could have first choice line up of Jussi Hutton Cahill Knight Robinson Muamba Lee Brown Wilshere Driver Owen

I see Vaz Te also bagged against the Taffys today. Portugl U23's 7-2 Wales U23's

Was thinking about that myself, however doubtful it would be, but it would always be worth a try. Would also do the same for Owen Hargreaves, can't imagine Fergie sticking him straight into first team action after his lenghty layoff, but we'd be able to give him a half season platform to prove his fitness for a late rally into the world cup squad. We've had the Davies', let's try the Owens'

The 2-2 at home to Arsenal in 02/03, after going 2-0 down for Djorkaeff to dink one past Seaman and Keowns OG for Djorkaeffs free kick. Jay Jay Okocha pulled out all the tricks that day. A bit of me did feel bad, as we effectivley gave United the title after that result. This where a gooden as well at home to Forest 93/94, think it was Thommos debut. Bolton 4-3 Forest

Simon Rudge!

I'm sure Ricketts has spent the majority of his career playing at left back, especially when he was at Swansea, which is why i was a little perplexed when we signed both Robinson and Ricketts. An idea for an experienced PL partner for Cahill on the cheap... Mickael Silvestre.

Well then, looking at most of these responses, most of you seemed to have missed the point. What got me thinking about this is there are a fair few people who I know you come out with comments like if Bolton were still at Burnden Park i'd have gone today, as its only down road and how many old geezers turn up over the weekend to watch local amateur matches because getting about via public transport is too much for them and it gives them some form of enterntainment and a bit of company. My idea would be to try and have a football club which is run as a non-profit organisation, which financially relys on donations and grants, but which is also able to compete at a decent competitive level. The only expenditure would be on running costs in getting a match displayed. There would be no admission fees, the match would be open to anyone, no overcharging on refreshments, in fact you could bring your own and no wages paid out to anyone, it'd more or less voluntary work. The club could be used as a stepping stone for ex-pros who are looking at their coaching badges to hone there skills in the real world, I remember Keith Branagan was working at Bolton School doing this type of thing a few years ago. We could also use the club to to aid the mis-guided youth of Bolton, to show them that there is something to work towards, give them something to strive for. How many 16-18 year olds would turn up there nose at the prospect of being able to play in the FA Cup in front of over 200 people? In terms of where the club would be located there are numerous facilities all around Bolton like Castle Hill, Akin Lane, Turton, Chapeltown etc... that could already be used and facilities could be upgraded to fit the criteria of entry into the likes of the Northern Premier Divison One or the North West COunties. There is potential for a merger with local amateur clubs where their profile would be raised significantly. I see that Fylde who have just been promoted from the North West Counties have spent ?150,000 on new facilities and ?30,000 on a new stand. Accy Stanley are trying to raise about that just to pay their tax bill with a small fan base, so it isn't beyond the realms of possibilites. I suppose The aim of it all would be to bring the community closer together young and old, deprived and nourished as at the end of the day all would want the same thing and taking away the potential of financial gain, their would be no alterior motives from anyone.

I must admint I was still a bit frustrated by the starting XI yesterday. Why revert to a 4-4-2 formation with players that don't really fit into that format. It's all well and good playing Riccy G as an out and out left winger, but putting Taylor out wide right to accomodate just seems to detract from Taylors game. I couldn't see what harm it would do to drop Taylor and give Lee Chung a start, then if it became evident Lee couldn't hack it we could change things. Having McCann and Muamba seemed to give us no forward options from the middle of the park, but i suppose you could argue who else we could have put alongside Muamba, with Cohen, Basham and Davies.M all being to inexperienced themselves to play in the centre with a 21 year old. It was good a see a front pairing and Klasnic being given a start, but not alongside Davies.K, would have preferred to have seen Elmander line up alongside him. However, after a decent, but still frustrating 70 minutes of a fairly open game, the introudction of Lee, Cohen and Elmander definately shook things up. It seemed we had energy and a cutting edge which was lacking before hand and Megson should take the credit for making these changes when he did. Before this match I believed we did have the players who would add an attacking impoteus to our play without taking anything away defensively, but it seemed Megson preferred to stick with what he knew best with his rigid approach in the league regardless of opposition. Hopefully this match has proven to Megson that he has players at his disposal who can open up Premiership teams and give us an extra dimension and there is no harm in playing a 4-5-1 formation as long as maybe one or two of the midfield five are given a license to probe and try and make things happen in the oppositions half. I was delighted with the last 45 mins or so of the game and now I'd expect Megson to field a similar sort of line up which finished this match from the start against Prem sides outside the top 8, especially at home. But well done Gary Megson and the Bolton Wanderers players for getting it right in the end.

What would be the general consenus to the idea of forming a breakaway club? Ask yourself, what captivated you about the whole football experience from the beginning? How did it feel to have a sense of belonging and prevailing in times of adversity? I am fed up of modern football. I want to support a football club who represents what I am and where I am from, not a multi-million pound business whos vested interests are to line the greed filled pockets who have no affinity with the borough of Bolton. Imagine being able to turn up at town centre based ground to support eleven players on that pitch who try as hard as they can to get a result, not for a win bonus so they can make some more adjustments to their Bentley, but for sheer pride. Entry level would be around the Northern Premier Division One, which contains local sides like Leigh Genesis, Chorley and Radcliffe Borough and from playing locally I can see there is an abundance of untapped/misguided talent in and around Bolton that would be able to more than hold their own at that level under the right guidance. I have contemplated going watching other local lower league sides just to get a taste of the real football experience, but it wouldn't be right cheering on another club who i have no real affinity with. The best thing of all, the club would be run by the fans and would be for the fans.

Just got me thinking, if we don't pick up any more than a point from our next 4 games, then we would have the same amount of points from the same amount of games as Sammy Lee did from his start to the 2007/08 season. Birmingham (a) Spurs (h) Man U (a) Everton (h) At the moment i can see us getting maybe 2 points but not much more, so if Gartside was to wield the axe, what managers would we be able to bring in. I've had a look and come up with a list below which goes from the very sensible to the downright ludicrous. What do you think of our would be (limited) options? Phil Brown Owen Coyle Stuart Pearce George Burley Gary Johnson Alan Irvine Nigel Adkins Simon Grayson Paul Tisdale Keith Hill Gordon Strachan Alan Curbishley Paul Jewell Glenn Hoddle Bryan Robson Kenny Dalglish Bruce Rioch Warren Joyce Slaven Bilic Morten Olsen Hector Cuper Radi Antic Otto Rehhagel Jurgen Klinsmann Vanderlei Luxemburgo Roger Lemerre Luciano Spalletti Alberto Zaccheroni Arrigo Sacchi Michael Laudrup Diego Simeone Jairzinho Romario Hristo Stoichkov Antonio Conte Neil McDonald Alan Thompson Mixu Paatelainen Youri Djorkaeff Jay Jay Okocha Gary Speed