paulhanley

I think probably Phil Brown v Owen Coyle happened at some point but would have to check back.

Good man Julian Darby. Late on his career with us he had some rough times with the fans but even then he scored a couple of really crucial goals when Bruce got us promoted. This is a properly deserved little bonus for him fairly late on in his footballing career. One of our own and I bet he feels nine feet tall this evening. Chuffed for him.

I think Big Sam would be a perfect director of football, on the board, linking between manager and directors, giving the benefit of his long experience not just of football but of Bolton Wanderers.

Had a good look at all the names in the frame and had a chance to think a bit now the work day is done. Schumacher has done nothing wrong in his managerial career. Nobody seems to make it stick at Stoke and he'd won as many games as he'd lost in the ridiculously short spell he was afforded. As things stand he's my no 1 choice. I reserve the right to change my mind half a dozen times between now and breakfast tomorrow though 🙂

Aye, you're right. It's just if by some miracle we got to the Championship with this squad I don't think we'd have enough time to evolve it to be ready for that level. It'd take a miracle worker.

I appreciate people's warnings about Schumacher although I'd been warm to that idea initially. I think Wycombe are in for him too. Gary O'Neil would be of interest. If Tony Mowbray hadn't got a new job recently I'd have been keen on him Ryan Lowe and Leam Richardson's stars have fallen a little bit of late. Let's get someone in with a bit of experience under their belt this time. As a decently sized club with a good fanbase and an upward journey beckoning, we are surely entitled to that privilege. I know people tend to scoff at Big Sam but if the club want a short-term caretaker while it considers its options I think he'd be perfect and he'd enjoy it. I also think he'd be up for a longer-term director of football style role and we clearly need someone with a footballing brain on that board. The amount of time its taken them to pot Evatt shows that!

First time I've managed to get on here since seeing the news this morning. What a blessed relief. I can start properly supporting the club again now. We're at Ground Zero in some ways but that squad has talent in it even if it has no balance and has not been managed with any pragmatism. Short term the players just need someone to build their confidence and keep it simple for them. We're not going up this year and we'd have been bombed out of the Championship if we'd beaten Oxford at Wembley. We need to focus on building a squad with lot of capabilities now, under the stewardship of a management team who are able to adapt and think laterally. It's all about hitting the ground running for 2025/26 season.

I've just read in the BN that Evatt reckons players are "shocked" by the level of vitriol from the fans. In this one sentence he sums it all up. What on Earth do you expect when you turn up as manager of Bolton Wanderers Football Club and get smashed 5-0 at Stockport and under-perform against a sequence of other clubs? We won't even get in to the abysmal consecutive non-appearances against Wigan. They want to be in a comfort zone where there's little pressure from the support base or within. They want to be able to continue their little Pep/Jurgen wet dream, that attempts all the style at those clubs but none of the substance. He says he understands and accepts the expectation at the club. He isn't even close to understanding it. The fact that he believes that results like Stockport 5 Bolton 0 and Bolton 0 Wigan 2 can be forgotten like a parent or teacher forgiving an errant teenager speaks more eloquently than anything. He thinks 32,000 of us going to Wembley for a pathetic no-show can be put down to experience and the slate can be wiped clean. Mr Evatt, it cannot. You delivered this bleakness and you have to pay the price for it. It is unacceptable. When is the penny going to drop with you that you are are beyond redemption at BWFC and need to move on? When is the board going to realise the same thing? You are not capable of dealing with life at Bolton Wanderers, you are not cut from the right cloth, you don't have the necessary metal for the task. Go.

Beat the pie-eaters 2-0 away this afternoon. At least the lasses have some idea how to beat that shower.

Not much to make me smile linked to my footballing affiliations just now but the ongoing circus at United definitely does. Long may it continue and long may their grotesque support base suffer. The rags and Tottenham were definitely the two big clubs to slip in to the second tier in the 70s (although Villa did so too early in the decade). Could it happen again? Nah, too much dross at the bottom. But Postecoglu in particular seems to be giving it a good try. There are elements of the Evatts about him.

In Spring we've got Stockport (h), Wigan (a), Blackpool (a). I don't see results in any of those given how spineless we are. That'll take toxicity up even further. That's when the axe is likeliest to fall.

It's all just marking time. He was lucky to get a second chance after the fiasco at Wembley. He bounced back from a poor start but then no Bolton Wanderers side should be going to Stockport and losing 5-0 or losing three times on the spin at home to Wigan. Full stop. Those things are unforgivable and quite frankly if Lazarus was the manager, he's not coming back from epoch making shit-shows like those. The fact that the board and Evatt think they have immunity against events that besmirch our history such as these tells you a lot. They do not understand BWFC or its fanbase and they are not delivering what is required. That's hard work and a battling mentality when needed, pragmatism and the necessary skill. Most of all it means second tier football, not year after year of League One drudge and flat track bullying.

Compare the way of managing injuries and fitness under Sam's time to this current shambles. Chalk and cheese - and Sam's time was 20 years ago, there'll have been advances since then. There's just no excuses. Of course it doesn't help when we keep signing players who have a clear injury ridden track record. Anyway, Santos. Not mentally strong enough or consistently good enough for the Championship. If he was there'd have been clubs in for him. Like in so many other areas it is time for the club to move on from this "project" and its components.

The hapless bloke on the microphone at half-time used to cop it a lot. Brutal, Boltonian humour.

Comically inept. We should come out to the Fr Ted theme tune. Sharon: We are right, you are wrong. Evatt out.