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Wanderers Ways. Neil Thompson 1961-2021

paulhanley

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Everything posted by paulhanley

  1. There's room in the squad for a signing if Arfield and Williams are on their way out but Iles ain't confident. Like most other folk I still think we need a midfielder with some physique. Overall though..not too fussed. Just relieved we've got rid of Evatt and enjoying the honeymoon period for the new set up. Win, lose or draw this season .... we're building for the future again.
  2. It's not major surgery that's needed but at the same time it's a little bit more than tweaks. The squad needs to be a bit more mentally tough, there needs to be a leader or two added and also a bit more physique, especially in midfield. SS is very unlikely to be as tactically dogmatic/predictable as IE so that problem ought to resolve itself.
  3. Ah well. Best he sees the lot, faults and all.
  4. Two Saturday mornings running when I've been looking forward to the Wanderers goings on the afternoon. The times they are a changing.
  5. We aren't getting automatic promotion and in my mind I'd written off the season and been thinking about preparing for 25/6 with a new manager and making an assault on League 1. These last two wins of Julian's have us outside the play offs by a fraction so, of course, promotion cannot be ruled out! Look at Oxford last season. Would we be Championship ready if we snuck up with this team? No. Oxford seem to have rapidly developed themselves though! As regards remaining fixtures I hope Julian has a little word with SS to say "whatever else happens the fans would love to avenge the 5-0 at Stockport, finally get one over on Wigan and win at Blackpool for the first time since 1977".
  6. That's what I was thinking. One of the best things to come out of this last week or so is Julian having that experience. He had a rough time with the fans at the end of Phil Neal's reign and although he scored some crucial goals under Bruce and its all a long time ago I am sure there were some faint bruises from that time. The warmth he's been shown and deserved this week will hopefully have dealt with all that and he knows he'll forever be well thought of in his home town. Good lad Julian. It's been a pleasure to see you smiling and enjoying living the dream. I am sure he'll be on hand for quiet bits of BWFC wisdom and knowledge with Mr S and the new staff.
  7. Brilliant news but bloody hell Cheese have you been pressing refresh all afternoon? You nearly beat the club to that announcement!
  8. Been at work all day so only just checking in. Probably miles behind the curve but it looks like betting suspended again and everyone waiting for to arrange the press conference?
  9. Penelope Pitstop. ... do something Mutley!
  10. https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/exclusive-bolton-wanderers-close-appointing-ex-stoke-city-boss-steven-schumacher/ Don't know how trustworthy a source this website is.
  11. Steve Thompson and Neil Redfearn? All we need is Warren Joyce on the team and its BWFC 1983/4 re-born!! I actually think there's a good manager in Thommo. When he was a player he took a while to build up physically and really it wasn't until his mid-20s that he matured in to the quality midfielder he's remembered as being here and at Leicester. Similar with his management career he's picked up a load of experience at different clubs and given his background and knowledge I reckon he's capable of being in the no 1 role. At Bolton and now though? It'd be a gamble and he's in a field with some quality/proven names. Still - while we all have Julian in mind its good to remember his midfield partner too. Thommo played an awful lot of games for us. (Redfearn was a tremendous midfielder too but much shorter career with us and came back to haunt us more than once)
  12. Its a good win. Enough of the goods and bads on display for our new boss to ponder. Interesting day or two ahead now but what we can say for sure is .... thanks Julian.
  13. I think the field has enough decent names in it for us to decide over the next 2-3 days rather make Julian a longer term caretaker. I'm glad Schumacher is still the frontrunner in the betting and to my mind he's the outstanding candidate. He's a course and distance runner re convincing automatic promotion from League 1 who will be hungry for success. He lost his last job through no fault of his own at a place where the manager's job is treated like the proverbial hot potato. Robbie Fowler, no thanks, no track record. That'd be like Argyle and Birmingham appointing Rooney. Rob Page has too slim a body of work at club level. That'd be a big gamble. Des Buckingham has the promotion (like Schumacher) and the youth/hunger (ditto) but there's the chance his success was a flash in the plan as it was achieved in a very short space of time having finished 6th in the play offs. Gary O'Neil. I'm more warm to that idea because he seems a solid type and showed his character when he was with us as a player. However he must have such little knowledge of League 1 or even the Championship compared to others. To my eyes Schumacher is not just the best fit but as good a fit as we could hope for . I hope that's Sharon's ultimate choice.
  14. He didn't "get grief for years". He did get grief for a spell in late 1991 and 1992 when Phil Neal's reign was turning sour and admittedly it was pretty grim stuff. I don't remember grief before that though. He scored a lot of goals (powerful daisy cutter shots and headers) and covered every blade of grass. Then under Bruce he got goals at Bournemouth (a) the game before the famous Hull match and the winner v Stoke at Burnden in the one before the PNE promotion game. He's one of ours born and bred and he and his family will always remember yesterday. Let's enjoy it with him.
  15. Cant' see the odds online any more. As folk above have said I hope this is a sign that the job is now Schumacher's. If so, onwards and upwards.
  16. I think probably Phil Brown v Owen Coyle happened at some point but would have to check back.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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 🙂
  20. 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.
  21. 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!
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. Beat the pie-eaters 2-0 away this afternoon. At least the lasses have some idea how to beat that shower.
  25. 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.
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