The Positives

[globaldiver]

Next season we will have a decent Chamionship team (as already prepared by buying Championship players), with a sprinkling of returning quality and I'll get to some new grounds

[Piemon]

Next season we will have a decent Chamionship team (as already prepared by buying Championship players), with a sprinkling of returning quality and I'll get to some new grounds

 

Bring it on. Better value for the Season ticket as well.

[gonzo]

i really do hope all this talk of actually wanting to go down is tongue in cheek.

 

in our second season down last time,we had gates under 12k about 5 times.

 

i personally cant think of anything worse that going back to that.the reebok is sterile enough,but fuck it will be bad.

 

and is eddie davis really going to be up for bank rolling a club with 11k gates? i think not.

 

good away trips my arse.i find the prospect of taking 100 fans to mk dons about as appealing as bum chap.

 

i know its looking like this is going to be the case at the minute,and its totally beyond our controll,but in all honesty im frightened to fucking death.

[Casino]

spot on

 

anybody looking forward to relegation missed the fcuking 80s

 

its bullshit

[Piemon]

i really do hope all this talk of actually wanting to go down is tongue in cheek.

 

in our second season down last time,we had gates under 12k about 5 times.

 

i personally cant think of anything worse that going back to that.the reebok is sterile enough,but fuck it will be bad.

 

and is eddie davis really going to be up for bank rolling a club with 11k gates? i think not.

 

good away trips my arse.i find the prospect of taking 100 fans to mk dons about as appealing as bum chap.

 

i know its looking like this is going to be the case at the minute,and its totally beyond our controll,but in all honesty im frightened to fucking death.

 

same Gonzo

 

be nice if the players fought for us a bit though. Dread to think what will happen if we do go down

[white -50]

For me today, the size of the crowd, over 24000. not bad,shame about the Team.

[Traf]

If we went down, we'd never come back.

 

FACT, DOUBLE FUCKING FACT WITH WHIPPED CREAM, CHERRIES & CHOCOLATE SPRINKLES ON TOP.

[YTARMY]

Bring it on. Better value for the Season ticket as well.

even though you dont mean it

 

there is a ring of truth in what you say

[Guest]

Next season we will have a decent Chamionship team (as already prepared by buying Championship players), with a sprinkling of returning quality and I'll get to some new grounds

megson's welcome back to the reebok

[SatanGreavsie]

For me it aint relegation itself that's the worry (after all, it's going to happen sooner or later) - it's the stagnation (or worse) that might follow.

Down for a season or two, parachute payments in the bank and good turnouts at promotion 6-pointers then back up via Wembley. Great stuff and the club could be better for it.

BUT

if it don't pan out that way and a few years down the line the payments have dried up, we get the Reebok's first sub 10k league crowd for MK Dons on a wet wednesday night and then end up 13 games into the 2015-2016 Championship still not on double figures points-wise, then any novelty will have long worn off...

[HR]

Aren't we stagnant now?

 

All were doing is making up numbers along with the likes of Wolves, Wiggin and Dingles. its repetitive and very stale. When it comes to the end of the season and Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool are scrapping for a Uefa Cup slot it will piss on any ambitions of causing upsets and hopes of anything higher than mid table for a long time to come.

[Ratwhite]

The position now is quite similar to when Megson and Coyle both came.

 

Languishing near the foot of the table with a third of the season gone.

 

Realistically we only need to improve our league position to achieve what we all want (at this moment in time), Premier League football next season.

 

Can Coyle provide that? Not sure

 

Are we due a fucking massive slice of luck (injuries and sendings off etc.) Yes

 

Are other teams around us likely to hit a bad patch like we have, Without doubt. Especially in second half of season

 

Coyle must already have a list of players that he will be looking to bring (with or without Cahill money)

 

Three home games before year end could be critical.

[desperado]

The position now is quite similar to when Megson and Coyle both came.

 

Languishing near the foot of the table with a third of the season gone.

 

Realistically we only need to improve our league position to achieve what we all want (at this moment in time), Premier League football next season.

 

Can Coyle provide that? Not sure

 

Are we due a fucking massive slice of luck (injuries and sendings off etc.) Yes

 

Are other teams around us likely to hit a bad patch like we have, Without doubt. Especially in second half of season

 

Coyle must already have a list of players that he will be looking to bring (with or without Cahill money)

 

Three home games before year end could be critical.

Good post that, pretty much sums up my thoughts.

[superjohnmcginlay]

Doesn't anyone else find it stagnant that we are here merely to make numbers up in a league we will never win, yet we cannot afford to go down, pretty bleak

[birch-chorley]

Doesn't anyone else find it stagnant that we are here merely to make numbers up in a league we will never win, yet we cannot afford to go down, pretty bleak

 

If we are in the fizzy pop then the ambition is to be stagnant in the top league, would rather be here than at Grimsby wishing we where here.

[Guest]

Doesn't anyone else find it stagnant that we are here merely to make numbers up in a league we will never win, yet we cannot afford to go down, pretty bleak

football is shit

 

 

Can't afford to stay up, either

[SatanGreavsie]

Doesn't anyone else find it stagnant that we are here merely to make numbers up in a league we will never win, yet we cannot afford to go down, pretty bleak

Aye, I know what you mean - but the UEFA qualifications showed that if you put a team together than can be half decent for at least a reasonable fraction of a season then you can get rewards. You could hardly call the last 6 years stagnant; if, however, the next 6 years are spent slumming round the bottom of the Championship, playing relegation 6-pointers against Crawley and nervously looking down at away trips to Stevenage and Dagenham & Redbridge, and being tickled pink when we manage to get a double figures home gate, then that's stagnation.

If a voice on high boomed down now and offered me the choice of either safety and two years of relegation battles OR two seasons down with a guarantee of promotion then I'd take the latter. But unfortunately there's no such guarantee...

[superjohnmcginlay]

football is shit

 

 

Can't afford to stay up, either

 

 

Indeed, I wasnt suggesting about being in the fizzy pop league at all but the point of football is becoming pointless

[HomerJay]

Positive - a couple of players in the transfer window could make a real difference.

 

Negative - I really don't trust coyle to bring in the right players in January

Edited November 27, 2011 by HomerJay

[Butterfly]

Positive - a couple of players in the transfer window could make a real difference.

 

Negative - I really don't trust coyle to bring in the right players in January

 

Wilshire and Holden his first January and Sturridge his second January.I don't think Bolton could dream of better January signings than them.

[HazzyinBolton]

Doesn't anyone else find it stagnant that we are here merely to make numbers up in a league we will never win, yet we cannot afford to go down, pretty bleak

 

 

Absolutely spot on. Even when we did actually achieve European football & got as far as we've ever been we rested players & played kids because we had bloody Wigan the weekend after (who we went & lost to anyway). The Premiership is great if you're trying to get there, great if it's your first few seasons there & great if you've got a very wealthy benefactor - otherwise it's a pointless treadmill.

 

Personally, I'd love to see a European superleague & let everyone that wants to be in it be in it. I'd have the rest of the prem (including us) & lower leagues split between 3 or 4 divisions with a couple of cup comps thrown in, working to a series of voluntary rules around salary capping, minimum numbers of youth team players & fairer splits of tv money with more money going to grass roots football.

 

The quality of the foot all might initially be worse but I'd prefer it.

[Casino]

The position now is quite similar to when Megson and Coyle both came.

 

i'd say there are significant differences

 

coyle inherited a good set of players

 

megson and our new manager inherited some shite

[Breightmet Boy]

spot on

 

anybody looking forward to relegation missed the fcuking 80s

its bullshit

 

But going through that made the mid 90's to date so much sweeter, so im glad i did.

[Butterfly]

i'd say there are significant differences

 

coyle inherited a good set of playersmegson and our new manager inherited some shite

 

Bolton were 19th and staring at relegation when Megson was sacked because the midfield was full of workmen and devoid of class.This was a squad he had spent ?40 million on assembling.Coyle solved the midfield problem Megson had failed to address by signing Wilshire and Holden within a few weeks of arriving.

[SatanGreavsie]

spot on

 

anybody looking forward to relegation missed the fcuking 80s

 

its bullshit

Aye, but it's only us owd 'uns (can I say that now without being banned ) that remember the slide. Once we hit rock bottom in May 1987 with relgation against Aldershot then - for all the shite we've had to put up with at various times - most seasons (see below) have had a genuine positive, be it a jolly to Wembley or Cardiff or abroad. So someone in their mid 30s who started going at 11 years old hasn't seen stagnation. Quite a lot of crap, yes, but not stagnation. OK, maybe 2 of the last 3 seasons have failed to produce much in the way of memories, but even in those we've had our moments. Since Aldershot we've had 9 trips to Cardiff/Wembley, 9 trips into Europe, amazing Cup nights away at Liverpool, Soton and Arsenal, 5 promotion piss-ups and at times been graced by the presence of genuine world class players within the team together with Bolton legends such as Super John etc. I'd not have thought that as I trudged away from the Aldershot game after the police moved us on when someone put a brick through their team bus windscreen.

So all in all it aint been a bad 24 years and it could have been so, so different - we've been lucky really, very lucky. Slide again and we may not be so fortunate..

 

86-87 Aldershot

87-88 Promoted

88-89 Wembley - Torquay

89-90 Playoffs

#90-91 Wembley - Tranmere

91-92 Cup run and the Soton game

92-93 Liverpool in Cup and promotion

93-94 Cup run - Arsenal

94-95 2 Wembleys in one season and promotion

95-96 First taste of PL, but relegated

96-97 Almost make 100 goals/points, stuff Spurs 6(7)-1, make the Swindon radio man cry, farewell to Burnden, promoted.

97-98 Cruel relegation on the final day.

98-99 Wembley (watford) after titanic playoff games.

99-00 Semi-finalists in 3 competitions, Wembley (Villa) and Barry Knight.

00-01 Cardiff and promotion

01-02 Youri and survival

02-03 JJ and survival

03-04 Cardiff (Boro)

04-05 UEFA qualification

05-06 Euro jollies to France, Bulgaria, Istanbul and Portugal.

06-07 UEFA qualification

07-08 Euro jollies to Germany, Macedonia, Serbia, Spain and Portugal.

08-09 Not much but ultimately still comfortably in PL

09-10 ditto

10-11 ditto and a day out at Wembley