dirty barsteward Posted March 17, 2008 Posted March 17, 2008 DAILY MAIL Why no tears will be shed if Bolton go down 21:00pm 17th March 2008 Suicide is defined as a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I hope Bolton Wanderers learn that lesson the hard way this season, because their demise would be a mercy killing for us all. Football should be about glory and honour. It should be about winning, pride and entertainment, inspiring a community and striving for accomplishments that will stand the test of time. But when Bolton, a club who have never scaled the heights of achievement or affection in the modern era, were a few steps from the summit of European success, when they had the chance to do something truly special for their fans for the first time in 50 years, they looked down from their giddy perch ? and jumped. Rather than send his men out to perform as if their lives depended on it, manager Gary Megson took the decision to pull the plug on their adventure. A temporary problem that should have been a magnificent challenge became a justification for assisted suicide. What is the point of Bolton when they behave like this? The club had a genuine chance of seizing a place in the last eight of the UEFA Cup against Sporting Lisbon. But Megson's priorities were so skewed he arrived in Portugal without 12 regular first-team players. He even left assistant manager Archie Knox and physiotherapist Andy Barr behind at the training ground, which was an extraordinary message to send to his squad. Needless to say, Bolton met their predictable end with open arms. The excuse was they had important business at home three days later against Wigan. Megson weighed up the prospect of writing the club's name alongside previous UEFA winners like Juventus, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Barcelona and Real Madrid and decided it was nothing when compared to the practicalities of scrapping for Premier League cash. So what if a decidedly average Sporting were there for the taking. Cowardice, pragmatism or plain stupidity told Megson it was better to kop out. But why battle for an entire season to claim a place in Europe if you are going to throw that opportunity away at the first sign of difficulty? Why fight for magnificent results against Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich if you are going to chuck in the towel a few days later? It was a lousy call and a shameful dereliction of everything a football club should stand for. Most of all, it was an insult to all the fans who had paid good money to make that trip to Lisbon, as well as the journeys that preceded it. After this slap in the face, many won't make the same mistake next time. Not that there is likely to be a next time. Bolton, complete with their supposedly fresh and rested personnel, lost against a Wigan side reduced to 10 men for a full 85 minutes and look closer to relegation than ever. So much for that mini-break. Yet they could have jogged out on to Wigan's ploughed field having earned themselves a place alongside Fiorentina, PSV, Rangers and Bayern Munich in the last eight of the UEFA Cup. The considerable morale boost of European victory might have helped spark a move away from danger at the foot of the table. Instead, Megson effectively told his players they were incapable of playing two games in such a short space of time and that they were not good enough to bother about Europe either. With this endorsement ringing in their ears Bolton went out and promptly proved it. They are not alone, of course. Reading were equally foolish in treating the FA Cup with contempt earlier this season and, incredibly, there are rumblings from within West Bromwich Albion that their Wembley semi-final date is now proving a 'distraction' from the promotion hunt. Well thank God for distractions. Coventry City fans still regale one another with talk of their FA Cup Final 'distraction' in 1987. Fans of old Wimbledon have been doing the same for the past 20 years. And Ipswich Town distracted themselves to the point of complete bewilderment by collecting the UEFA Cup in 1981. Silly them, eh? But Bolton represent the ugly truth of the game. It is now a chase for money, not glory and some are quite prepared to scrabble around in the gutter for their pennies, throwing aside trinkets like medals because they don't understand their true worth. They seem happy to accept their place and live down to their limitations. If Bolton now follow their selfinflicted European exit by dropping through the relegation trapdoor and landing with an almighty splat a division below, it will be difficult for any neutral to feel sympathy for the club. A Premier League death will be a release.
Traf Posted March 17, 2008 Posted March 17, 2008 Sounds fair really, and quite tame to some of the shite on here this week.
Jussi Posted March 17, 2008 Posted March 17, 2008 Considering the usual crap the Daily Mail comes out with this sums up exactly how I feel at the minute. Obviously I don't want us to be relegated but the majority of the article is spot on.
jayjayoghani Posted March 17, 2008 Posted March 17, 2008 I notice though they didnt publish this between Lisbon and Wigan.
wanderer13 Posted March 17, 2008 Posted March 17, 2008 or we could be a 'salt of the earth' club like West Ham who have the money to buy 3 squads and ilegally buy their way out of relegation!! "footballs about glory and pride" just like a third rate competition featuring the 5th to 7th best in european leagues where all you can win is the chance to play in the tin pot competition the following season - stick to the cricket, lacrosse Daily Mail!!
bolty58 Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 Hard to argue with that article. Anyone else feel that if we had any other manager at the helm we would have gone to Lisbon and had a real go or is it just me?
BeeDee Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 Agree with pretty much all of it. Puts into words how I feel
Mounts Kipper Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 fook the mail, and all the southern media, they will be loving sticking the knife in BWFC, while we are down, if we had won on sunday nowt would have been written.
mannyroad58 Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 I couldn't have put it better myself, top article and it's exactly how i feel about it all. The club are just taking the p*ss out of the lot of us. Fcuk Fatty Gartside and Smegson
blackleywhite Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 (edited) fook the mail, and all the southern media, they will be loving sticking the knife in BWFC, while we are down, if we had won on sunday nowt would have been written. Exactly. If we were safe from relegation we would have put out our strongest side, like Everton and Spurs. If you think that ANY club would have done differently given the situation then you are deluded. If you think that winning a world's tallest dwarf contest like the Uefa cup is better than staying in the premier league you are still pissed. Edited March 18, 2008 by blackleywhite
frank_spencer Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 (edited) Hard to argue with that article. Anyone else feel that if we had any other manager at the helm we would have gone to Lisbon and had a real go or is it just me? Not me FSA, Lee and pretty much any other manager would put out a 2nd string side, now whether those managers would've taken 1st teamers to put on the bench is another matter. Edited March 18, 2008 by frank_spencer
Ani Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 Whatever people thought of Megsons desicion not to take or play players in Lisbon, we lost and then lost to 10 men at Wigan. The desicion has back-fired as a manager things happen you take the consequences when they work in your favour you take the shit when they do not. Megson and Gartside are neck deep in shit, the only thing that would stop them being totatlly covered in shit is if we manage to stay up. The sad thing is that other teams are still very catchable if we had shown a glimmer of fight and ability in recent ganes we could be virtually safe.
MickyD Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 I feel the majority of fans, although saying otherwise on here, would rather have sacrificed the UEFA Cup than the Prem. The annoyance was that, in effectively dumping ourseves out of the UEFA, we didn't then win the game that the first team squad were 'rested' for. Megson even stated how tired they looked at Wigan, even though most of them had had about 10 days without a competative game! What were they doing for the last 10 days to look so out-of-sorts? If we'd battered Wigan then he'd have been hailed as a manager who knows the score and has the managerial accumen to stave off relegaion. As it is he's looked at as being only just better than LSL; and that's bad!
Zico Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 if lad I know who works at the club is to be believed, the decision to drop the 1st team has backfired because it p?ssed them all off big time, and they all watched it together and were totally gutted/deflated at the end of it, seems megson's handling of the situation has not gone down very well at all
george Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 if lad I know who works at the club is to be believed, the decision to drop the 1st team has backfired because it p?ssed them all off big time, and they all watched it together and were totally gutted/deflated at the end of it, seems megson's handling of the situation has not gone down very well at all So instead of being tired they had the deflated excuse to go hiding when Wigan wanted to win the game more in the first half. The decision to throw the Lisbon game wasn't Megson's to make.If the owner/Gartside wanted the strongest side played in Lisbon,Megson would have been ordered to play it.
Zico Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 So instead of being tired they had the deflated excuse to go hiding when Wigan wanted to win the game more in the first half. not sure if that was his point, think he was letting us know how a) p?ssed off, gutted the ones that were left behind were apparently his man management skills had a similar effect at forest
passmosster Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 if lad I know who works at the club is to be believed, the decision to drop the 1st team has backfired because it p?ssed them all off big time, and they all watched it together and were totally gutted/deflated at the end of it, seems megson's handling of the situation has not gone down very well at all The worst part for me is the team selected for Wigan and then the tactics in the game. We seemed to want to take them on at mud-wrestling ( which is what they are good at and why their pitch is like it is). There was zero pace in the team. What's the point in having two big slow front players if we leave our best crosser of the ball in Stelios out completely and have the slowest midfield ever selected so they can't get up to support the attack? You have to move it against Wigan, especially down to 10 men. Have you seen any Bolton midfielder run into the area with the ball at his feet in the last 10 League games?
enzo gambaro Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 if lad I know who works at the club is to be believed, the decision to drop the 1st team has backfired because it p?ssed them all off big time, and they all watched it together and were totally gutted/deflated at the end of it, seems megson's handling of the situation has not gone down very well at all I thought about that on Sunday myself. F?ck that, though. They get paid well enough not to get us relegated in a fit of pique. Their big away trips next season will be Preston and Blackpool if they take that attitude.
trotter58 Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 Exactly.If we were safe from relegation we would have put out our strongest side, like Everton and Spurs. If you think that ANY club would have done differently given the situation then you are deluded. If you think that winning a world's tallest dwarf contest like the Uefa cup is better than staying in the premier league you are still pissed. Everton are chasing a place in the Champions League, they were 0-2 down from the first leg and yet they still put out their strongest side. The 'world's tallest dwarf contest' is one in which Villa, Spurs, Pompey, City, etc, would give anything to take part in next season. Did you even read the list of previous winners?
BossHog Posted March 18, 2008 Posted March 18, 2008 that article is spot on !!! Toss article..... i hope this guy gets aids.... mature i know...
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