(That long since we've had any, couldn't find the thread)

Alan Nixon: "Top Liverpool starlet Cameron Branagan will Ben allowed out on loan in Jan.

Bolton lead the race for the 20 year old midfielder"

Edited December 11, 20169 yr by Ratwhite

It'll be a combination of transfers and loans again this summer. If I had to predict, 7-8 transfers, 5 loans and a couple out.

36 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Can anyone summarise 

Basically, Fergal is the goat and is getting us back to the Premier League

25 minutes ago, only1swanny said:

Just seem Randall in the Trafford Centre.

Really nice guy, posed for a selfie, said I'm looking forward to him producing the goods next season 

Where ???

Just now, Dr. Feelgood said:

Where ???

I assumed he had a job in Trafford Centre.

Build a Bear ? 

49 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Can anyone summarise 

Please God, don't. 

37 minutes ago, only1swanny said:

Just seem Randall in the Trafford Centre.

Really nice guy, posed for a selfie, said I'm looking forward to him producing the goods next season 

Elsewhere though yeah? 

1 hour ago, gonzo said:

Can anyone summarise 

If anyone can, AI can

 

✅ Where the author is broadly correct

• Harkin’s background

  • He did spend many years at Manchester City, ending as Football Partnerships & Pathways Manager [blog.trans...erroom.com]
  • He became Sporting Director at Standard Liège (2022–2025) [trainingground.guru]
  • That role did involve overseeing recruitment, development, and strategy (not just loans) [bwfc.co.uk]

• Nature of his earlier role

  • Pathways/loan-type roles do focus heavily on developing players, managing loans, and building club networks (the author’s description is broadly accurate in spirit).

• Mixed recruitment perception

  • It’s reasonable to say fan opinions on signings are mixed — that’s common and subjective.

---

❌ Where the author is misleading or unsupported

• “He was basically out of a job at Liège”

  • There’s no evidence he was sacked.
  • Officially, he completed his contract and chose to leave for Bolton [standard.be]

• “Only specialised in loans”

  • Misleading: at Standard he ran the entire football operation, including recruitment and transfers [bwfc.co.uk]

• Reason for joining a “third division club”

  • Oversimplified. Sporting Director roles depend on:
    • project appeal
    • control and influence
    • club vision
  • Bolton specifically hired him to lead all football operations and strategy [bwfc.co.uk]

• Transfer performance judgement

  • Completely subjective — there’s no objective evidence in sources ranking his signings as “hits or failures.”

---

🟡 Bottom line

• Factually grounded on his career path ✅
• Wrong or speculative about why he left Liège and his level ❌
• Heavily opinion-based on recruitment performance 🟡

👉 Overall: it’s a fan opinion piece with some facts, but quite a bit of bias and assumption mixed in, rather than an objectively “correct” analysis.

4 hours ago, desperado said:

One thing I do know for a fact is that Harkin is really valued from the top within our club. 

Well respected at City too. 

They consider him to be a pivotal cog (by some, the most) in this summers recruitment. 

 

Just curious, what actually happens, does Harkin put a list of potential signings to SS and SS has the final say? Wasn't sure where this Jimmy Dickinson gets involved? 

1 minute ago, Blondi said:

Just curious, what actually happens, does Harkin put a list of potential signings to SS and SS has the final say? Wasn't sure where this Jimmy Dickinson gets involved? 

Other way around, but all 3 have to agree essentially

Edited May 27May 27 by jmjhb

6 minutes ago, Blondi said:

Just curious, what actually happens, does Harkin put a list of potential signings to SS and SS has the final say? Wasn't sure where this Jimmy Dickinson gets involved? 

I’ll be honest I don’t know who does what. But I have had conversations with one member of the board and that’s how I know how highly they regard FH

Edited May 27May 27 by desperado

2 hours ago, L/H White said:

Selling Morley and getting Ruben on a free was superb business 

Yep.

 

1 hour ago, Sluffy said:

You seem to have issues with me?

Anyway  the squad was still built around Evatt's signings - Sheehan, Toal, McAtee, Johnston, Tutu, Forino, to a less extent Dempsey and until January, Morley and Cogley.

Simon, Gale and Erhahon were bought but never really nailed down a place in a League 1 side, the keeper we had for the season was so bad he went back in January and none of our loans have been turned into signings (so far anyway).

Yes promotion was achieved but the side still relied heavily on Evatt's signings even though the players that Harkin brought in such as Simon, Gale, Erhahon and the loanees were presumably brought in to replace them.

Indeed we brought in two players (Cissoko and Blackett-Taylor) to start ahead of Gale who reportedly we paid £600k in the summer.

Job done, promotion, everybody happy - but that was never my point.

My point has been recruitment needs to be better next season if we are to stay up as few of this seasons signings and loans look to be able to become Championship regulars with us if they struggled to get in the team this season.

Perhaps it will, perhaps it won't and we still stay up.

Who knows?

It's just my observation on how I see things.

No issue. But from what I can deduce from the few days that you’ve been back on here (which predates my more regular posting), is that you have an issue with FV and/or some board members and that spills over to anybody they recruit to assist the help the team off of the pitch 

.

Edited May 27May 27 by boltonboris

5 minutes ago, boltonboris said:

Why would he say that to you? 

Swanny said it to Randall 

He'll have along wait though 

Toss up between him and Eagles as being the massive fanny more interested in their looks 

3 minutes ago, ZiggyStardust said:

If anyone can, AI can

 

---

❌ Where the author is misleading or unsupported

• “He was basically out of a job at Liège”

  • There’s no evidence he was sacked.
  • Officially, he completed his contract and chose to leave for Bolton [standard.be]

• “Only specialised in loans”

  • Misleading: at Standard he ran the entire football operation, including recruitment and transfers [bwfc.co.uk]

• Reason for joining a “third division club”

  • Oversimplified. Sporting Director roles depend on:
    • project appeal
    • control and influence
    • club vision
  • Bolton specifically hired him to lead all football operations and strategy [bwfc.co.uk]

• Transfer performance judgement

  • Completely subjective — there’s no objective evidence in sources ranking his signings as “hits or failures.”

---

🟡 Bottom line

• Factually grounded on his career path ✅
• Wrong or speculative about why he left Liège and his level ❌
• Heavily opinion-based on recruitment performance 🟡

👉 Overall: it’s a fan opinion piece with some facts, but quite a bit of bias and assumption mixed in, rather than an objectively “correct” analysis.

AI isn't all there yet my friend.

I never said he was sacked - I said the new owners didn't renew his contract (or he chose not to renew with them).

I said he specialised with loans whilst at City, his job there being a Football Partnerships and Pathways Manager.  I also wrote that He was appointed by Standard de Liège as their new manager in charge of deploying the sport strategy of the club in the long term. So AI was wrong here as well.

My question was that if Harkin was so good why did he end up in the third tier and not the PL, a reasonable thing to ask I would have thought, wouldn't you?  AI talks about the role of a Sporting Director not why someone deemed to be a 'coup' would want to work outside a 'premiere' European club.  It does not seem to have recognised the nuance I clearly made.

It completely misunderstands that the rankings were made based on YOUR opinions ('your' meaning how posters on here felt about individual players - I made NO opinions myself on any player.

So the bottom line - yes I was factual on his career path, I did not claim Harkin was sacked and in fact listed the only two options remaining, namely the new owners did not renew his contract or he himself wanted to leave at the end of his contract, and the post was heavily opinion based on recruitment performance - being those of YOUR OPINIONS, not mine.

It was a fan article I wrote (what else could it be on here) but based on the opinions of the voters on here (not my own) and as I wrote the post free of my own opinions of the players (or Harkin) it could not be biased on my part and as far as I recall the assumptions I did make (Harkin leaving) I gave every option that could have happened (I never said he was sacked).

 

On a serious note I would advice people strongly not to let AI do your thinking for you.

Yes use it as a tool by all means - I do myself but as I say, AI is not all there yet and, as in this case, given wrong or misleading, answers to you.

We've just won promotion using a gaggle of players nobody else wanted, littered with injury plagued loanees and players that were cast as cart horses, one trick ponies and generally weak as piss.

All with making a profit on players last summer.

I'd say our recruitment team has worked just fine and if you're spending your day questioning them the week after we've just been promoted then I would seriously think about your mindset and suggest you're an absolute stark raving lunatic with fuck all else to do. 

 

 

Edited May 27May 27 by gonzo

777 not the easiest people to work for by all accounts

Think a lot of our fans have forgotten what recruitment looks like outside of hasbeens, neverbeens and neverwillbe's. It's been over 10 years since we've had a proper recruiting system, think for a year or 3 before FV we didn't even have any scouts.

Towards the end of the PL era and Championship last time, we squandered years signing none resellable dross and the talented ones we did sign left for next to nowt or for free. 

Edited May 27May 27 by Zog1

55 minutes ago, boltonboris said:

No issue. But from what I can deduce from the few days that you’ve been back on here (which predates my more regular posting), is that you have an issue with FV and/or some board members and that spills over to anybody they recruit to assist the help the team off of the pitch 

I have no idea whatsoever why you would think that?

I have the highest regards for FV and as far as I can see they aim to establish us as a Championship team and possibly go even higher with us.

I've always been interested as to why Sharon chose us, there definitely been better clubs for her to have bought in respect of both financial grounds and travel distance from her own home but chose us she did.

I had thought for the first few years her financial backer was Nick Mason (it may well have been initially?) but the emergence of the 'Swiss' and Mr Ben (Ben Luckock - I posted the Mr Ben as a joke in case you missed it first time around?), it become clear to me that money is no object to them (via BMLL Ltd into FV) and that if there is any truth in the speculative talk about £30m investment from 'the 'American's', then that is likely being done in collaboration with MBLL, wheels within wheels, networking, that sort of thing going on if you know what I'm trying to say.

That's my thinking anyway.

Perhaps the link as to why FV are here goes back to something I seem to recall from very early on in the process and that was I believe Nick Luckock had an office in Bolton (or worked at one, or something like that) maybe the wheels within wheels, networking, whatever drew him in when Wanderers needed a buyer and the rest is history?

Anyway whatever it was it has turned out to be a blessing for us.

Mistakes have happened along the way though, the thing with Kenyon and Phoenix was strange, Evatt outstayed his welcome and landed us with a team of million pound number 10's and I'm pretty sure Harkin was appointed just to stop something similar happening again.

My recent comments about Harkin was in respect to the future, not the past, I don't know why people are getting their knickers in a twist over me, I'm only echoing back THEIR OWN VIEWS of the players signed under Harkin and all I've been saying is based on THEIR OWN VIEWS that we haven't got much of a core of players we think are capable of being Championship players, therefore our recruitment needs to be spot on this summer otherwise we will soon be struggling in the league next season.

I just see that as stating the obvious which seems to have upset more than a few on here - I don't know why as most of them probably already accept it is going to be a hard season in front of us.

 

And finally I have no issues with anyone in real life let alone on an internet forum - the truth of the matter is more that several board members are the ones who have trouble with me - even after being away for six years.

I do realise that will never change for some of them.

Jesus H.

Try doing a paragraph, maybe two.

Edited May 27May 27 by Dr. Feelgood

27 minutes ago, gonzo said:

We've just won promotion using a gaggle of players nobody else wanted, littered with injury plagued loanees and players that were cast as cart horses, one trick ponies and generally weak as piss.

All with making a profit on players last summer.

I'd say our recruitment team has worked just fine and if you're spending your day questioning them the week after we've just been promoted then I would seriously then you're an absolute stark raving lunatic with fuck all else to do. 

 

 

I might well be an absolute stark raving lunatic with fuck all else to do but I've been talking about the future not the past.

I would have though you would be wanting us to stay up next season but we won't by using a gaggle of players nobody else wanted, littered with injury plagued loanees and players that were cast as cart horses, one trick ponies and generally weak as piss, that still remain within our squad - hence the need for Harkin to get substantially more right than wrong in this summer transfers dealings.

That's all I've actually said.

I haven't been pissed on your chips or anything you know.

I've only stated the obvious - or do you think differently?

4 minutes ago, Sluffy said:

I might well be an absolute stark raving lunatic with fuck all else to do but I've been talking about the future not the past.

I would have though you would be wanting us to stay up next season but we won't by using a gaggle of players nobody else wanted, littered with injury plagued loanees and players that were cast as cart horses, one trick ponies and generally weak as piss, that still remain within our squad - hence the need for Harkin to get substantially more right than wrong in this summer transfers dealings.

That's all I've actually said.

I haven't been pissed on your chips or anything you know.

I've only stated the obvious - or do you think differently?

I think they've worked wonders this season. Not everything came off but a lot did. We are 2 days in to our 3rd window under the new regime.

Given what they've achieved so far with the remit of having to completely change the sqauds way of playing, mentality, having to beg steal and borrow in a season littered with injuries, I fully trust them to manage things this summer.

They've clearly been planning this summer for a long time. With the forthcoming investment hopefully it'll all come fruition. You can only judge them on their efforts so far and it's so far so good, despite the odd failing.

Be interesting to see what they do with a bit of cash.

 

2 hours ago, masi 51 said:

I have a alternative view the reason we never got promotion Automatically was because we still had too many Evatt players in the building. We cleared what we could last summer and no surprise to see another  three discarded in January. Think we are down to five and i would guess three of those may not last the Summer.

We never relied on those players this season .....We stumbled through and two put in great performances in the play-offs but not enough the whole season to give them a new contract. That is not having a go at the three who we released. SS just thinks they are not Championship standard.

..

 

SS soon  carried on the axe this week and if he got offers for most of the others they will be gone

We didn't rely on Forino, Toal, Sheehan, Johnston, Tutu, McAtee, less so with Dempsey and Morley and Cogley who left in December, you say?

The first five of those were starters for most of the second half of the season, with the sixth being a regular sub.

I understand that you are strongly anti Evatt but it's just silly to deliberately be in denial that Forino, Toal, Sheehan, Johnston and Tutu were half of the side that got us promoted even if you never rated them.

If Harkin and Schumacher thought they were not required to be relied on then he would have done something about it in the January window and not relied on the five/six of them for nearly all the league matches for the second half of the season.

 

1 hour ago, Sluffy said:

AI isn't all there yet my friend.

I never said he was sacked - I said the new owners didn't renew his contract (or he chose not to renew with them).

I said he specialised with loans whilst at City, his job there being a Football Partnerships and Pathways Manager.  I also wrote that He was appointed by Standard de Liège as their new manager in charge of deploying the sport strategy of the club in the long term. So AI was wrong here as well.

My question was that if Harkin was so good why did he end up in the third tier and not the PL, a reasonable thing to ask I would have thought, wouldn't you?  AI talks about the role of a Sporting Director not why someone deemed to be a 'coup' would want to work outside a 'premiere' European club.  It does not seem to have recognised the nuance I clearly made.

It completely misunderstands that the rankings were made based on YOUR opinions ('your' meaning how posters on here felt about individual players - I made NO opinions myself on any player.

So the bottom line - yes I was factual on his career path, I did not claim Harkin was sacked and in fact listed the only two options remaining, namely the new owners did not renew his contract or he himself wanted to leave at the end of his contract, and the post was heavily opinion based on recruitment performance - being those of YOUR OPINIONS, not mine.

It was a fan article I wrote (what else could it be on here) but based on the opinions of the voters on here (not my own) and as I wrote the post free of my own opinions of the players (or Harkin) it could not be biased on my part and as far as I recall the assumptions I did make (Harkin leaving) I gave every option that could have happened (I never said he was sacked).

 

On a serious note I would advice people strongly not to let AI do your thinking for you.

Yes use it as a tool by all means - I do myself but as I say, AI is not all there yet and, as in this case, given wrong or misleading, answers to you.

Arguing with AI now.

😆😆