Bolton finished last season strongly, but hopes of hitting the ground running this season have been hit by a series of injuries to key players.
These are interesting, and potentially troubling, times for Bolton Wanderers. Is it possible that this reasonably likeable club and their forward thinking manager could be about to be impaled on their own inflated expectations?
Just 18 short months ago Bolton looked like a Championship club waiting to happen and with Gary Megson in charge I’d guess that few would have missed them and plenty would have rejoiced at their demise. God knows what it is about Megson but it’s absolutely impossible not to completely despise the odious tosser. The way he talks, the way his teams play, his footballing philosophies – every single thing about him just rubs people up the wrong way. Him turning up at your club is like hearing JLS are going to record your cup final song.
He arrived in a tricky situation at Bolton who had previously soared into the upper echelons of the Premiership and even played European football with some of the game’s best known players with Sam Allardyce in charge but since fallen on hard times. Jay Jay Okocha, Youri Djorkaeff, Bruno N’Gotty and Eider Gujohnsson were among the weird and wonderful foreign stars that played under Allardyce who nevertheless attracted criticism for his style of play, and later unwanted attention for the way the club conducted transfer deals with his agent son Craig.
When he resigned and left for Newcastle Bolton replaced him with his assistant Sammy Lee who, in a scenario not dissimilar to the Gary Waddock succession of Ian Holloway at QPR, all but denounced the previous style of the team and vowed to introduce a wholly new and more attractive pattern of play. This, rather predictably given the job Allardyce did and the inexperience of his replacement, threatened to turn into a disaster and Lee lasted barely three months. He was then replaced by Megson who turned out to be Allardyce-lite, bringing all of the negative elements and none of the positive.
Bolton’s financial situation is not good. It’s not disastrous by the standards of many Premiership clubs but with a debt approaching £100m it can’t be deemed healthy. Relegation from the Premiership would surely trigger a further descent down the leagues like so many clubs have endured before them – and it’s one of those clubs I particularly have in mind when I think of Bolton.
You see just in the nick of time the board at the Reebok Stadium finally saw sense and sent Megson packing. Not only that but they went out and got the best possible replacement in Owen Coyle from Burnley, more on him shortly. New attractive, but also effective, style of play installed and Bolton were actually quite decent to watch for a lot of last season. God Coyle even made Johan Elmander look like a good player when previously he’d been written off as one of the worst examples of a multi-million pound foreign footballer with no ability to back up his price tag.
But are clouds now on the horizon? A resurgent season has Bolton fans dreaming of top six finishes and European football once again. However Coyle already finds himself behind the eight ball somewhat before this season has even begun. Influential midfielder Stuart Holden is still recovering from a horrific tackle from Man Utd’s Johnny Evans last season that left him requiring 26 stitches around his knee to reattach his leg.
Another creative midfielder, Lee Chung-Yong, is similarly incapacitated after an equally dreadful tackle in a pre-season friendly at Newport County this summer. Tom Miller was the culprit that time, a particularly agricultural and moronic effort at a challenge further underlining the risks sides take every pre-season while at the same time doing these clubs a favour with gate money. Mind you, nowhere is safe it seems, within days new signing from Burnley Tyrone Mears had suffered a leg break of his own during a routine training session. Welsh full back Sam Ricketts ruptured his Achilles in February and is not expected back just yet, Elmander moved to Galatasaray during the summer and the star of the end of last season Daniel Sturridge is now back with Chelsea. Talk of signing Cameron Jerome and David Ngog has so far come to nothing and a loan deal for Stoke’s Turkish forward Tuncay hangs on a work permit renewal, and so it looks like Kevin Davies may have to lead the beleaguered side by himself to begin with.
Add to that a dreadful end to an otherwise excellent 2010/11 where Bolton lost their last five league games of the season following a 5-0 FA Cup Semi Final defeat by Stoke. These weren’t games against the leading lights of the Premiership either – Fulham beat them 3-0, favourites for relegation this season Blackburn won 1-0, chronically out of form at the time Sunderland won 2-1 and Blackpool won 4-3 just a week before they were relegated. Man City were the only side of note they lost to in that run.
Meanwhile expectations have grown, as our interview with a Bolton fan will shortly demonstrate. Could we perhaps be heading for a repeat of the Charlton Athletic scenario here where a club that, in reality, should probably be happy just to stay in the league each year tries to go too far too soon and then when it doesn’t happen gets impatient and makes a silly decision or two? Charlton have never been the same since Alan Curbishley left and yet in the last 18 months of his reign there wasn’t a radio phone in show broadcast where a Charlton fan didn’t come on moaning about lack of ambition, poor progress, should be pushing for Europe and so on.
There are enough poor sides in the league this season for Bolton to be ok, but with an injury list that already looks like that of a club many months into the season and anaemic looking forward line I wonder if this might turn out to be little more than a season of rebuilding and regrouping for Bolton, rather than one where they launch an assault on the top ten.
Where are Bolton going in the medium to long term? Is the aim purely survival every season? What are the club's and the supporters' ambitions? From what it seems, we’re looking to stabilise the club into a regular top ten team, and then eventually break into the top six. If we manage to secure a place in the top six, it’s always a bonus. Fans of the club will be happy with a top ten place – that definitely will show we’re improving as a squad/club.
Who are Bolton's key men this season?
Stuart Holden will be one to keep an eye on once he’s back for us. We also would’ve asked you to keep an eye on Chung Yong Lee but fate seems to have taken that option away from us. However, a few names would be worth putting your money on – Darren Pratley has look sharp in the pre-season and if he gets a chance Ivan Klasnic could well be one to watch.
Which Bolton player would you gladly drive to his next club - your version of Patrick Agyemang if you like?
We’ve got a great team/family at the club – that’s something you’ll experience yourself when you come away to the Reebok. We love entertaining away fans as long as we receive the respect that we in turn give, hence there’s no player at the club we’d love to see leave. Coyle’s brought a great set of players together. If I was pushed to choose though, I’d have to say Robbie Blake as he’s quite old now and his wages would help free up some funds for another younger player.
Who's the unsung hero or rising star we may not have heard about?
Vela! That’s Josh Vela. We’ve heard some great things about this youngster, and legend David Lee who we caught up with a few months ago also pointed out that Josh is one to catch your eye.
What is your perception of QPR as an outsider? How do you think we'll do this season and what is your impression of us as a club? It’s great to see the Hoops back in the top flight. We hope you have a fantastic season! It’s always tough for newly promoted clubs, being picked out as relegation candidates by pundits and constantly fighting the threat of relegation. There’s money to be had in the Premier League – something everyone wants a bite of. However, we think you’ll do well. Our prediction is you’ll just avoid relegation.
What do you make of the ticket prices for away fans at Loftus Road this year bearing in mind our board have told us they are "in line" with other Premiership clubs? Will you be coming to the match? Ticket prices are ridiculous in the Premier League, regardless of whether they’re Home tickets or Away. Teams such as Blackburn offer tickets at a much lower price – if one club can do it, they all should. The away ticket for the first game of the season is very expensive! Although some ‘hardcore’ fans may turn up to the game, in this current financial climate – I’m afraid it’s one journey we won’t be making.
Match prediction? It’s going to be a tough game – QPR will have to prove they can handle the pressure at this level, and Bolton need a good start after the dreadful pre-season injuries. We can foresee some goal action at the forthcoming game hence we’ll go for a QPR 2 – 3 Bolton scoreline.
Much like QPR the main asset Bolton have going for them is the manager. Few could begrudge the Reebok faithful a chance to see their team managed by a young, forward thinking manager after suffering for so long watching Gary Megson football and in Owen Coyle I think Wanderers have one of the best in the country at the moment.
Scotland doesn’t produce players any more, the squad selected by Craig Levein for their most recent games would barely be good enough to avoid the wooden spoon in the Premier Reserve League, but it still has a knack of grooming the very best managers in our game. Watch out for Derek McInnes, the former West Brom midfielder, who is currently in charge at St Johnstone and is hotly tipped to be the next big hit south of the border.
Coyle cut his teeth with the Saints as well, after a spell in joint charge at Flakirk with John Hughes. While with St Johnstone he took them, as a First Division side, to two cup semi finals. They beat Rangers at Ibrox for the first time in 35 years in the quarter finals of the Scottish League Cup and took Hibs to extra time before losing the Hampden semi. They got another crack at a semi final in the Scottish Cup thanks to away wins at SPL sides Falkirk and Motherwell but were this time beaten by Celtic. A year later, during the 2006/07 season, he took them to the Challenge Cup (think Football League Trophy) final against Dunfermline which they won but a week before that final Coyle left to join Burnley.
As a player Coyle had played both in Scotland and England. His CV includes spells with Dundee United, Motherwell, Falkirk, three separate tours of duty with Airdrie and 12 goals in 54 appearances at Bolton. At Burnley his achievements as a rookie manager were magnificent. The Clarets had developed a reputation under his predecessor Steve Cotterill as a club with an excellent starting eleven and absolutely no strength in depth. They would spend big money, the likes of Andy Gray and Ade Akinbiyi didn’t come cheap, but every winter injuries and suspensions would take a horrendous toll on their miniscule squad of players so that promotion winning form at either end of the season became the bread on a rather unpleasant relegation battle sandwich. For a club, and a town, the size of Burnley this lower mid-table existence in the Championship seemed about right.
Coyle though had other ideas and in his first full season in charge marched a confident, sassy, attractive Burnley side into the Premiership via a thoroughly deserved play off final victory against Sheffield United. They were a superb side to watch and won many friends along the way.
In the Premiership they did better than many newly promoted sides, and claimed the notable scalps of Sunderland, Everton and Man Utd in early home games. But like Norwich City before them they couldn’t marry mid-table home form with any sort of results on the road. Burnley were regularly thrashed in away games but had a fighting chance of staying up at the midpoint of the season when Bolton came calling for Coyle. Now having previously turned down the chance to go and manage Celtic it seemed an odd decision for Coyle to move to Bolton, but it was clear that at Burnley he had achieved all he could and with his Wanderers connections he decided to make the move. The Burnley fans now treat him as a pariah, apparently forgetting that he gave them a season of Premiership football when they least expected it and brought a fabulous style of football to their club. Such is life.
Their bitterness wasn’t helped much when Burnley went from having the best manager they could possibly have to the worst when they replaced Coyle with Brian Laws and were predictably immediately relegated. Despite replacing Laws with Eddie Howe last season that decision to go for the former Scunthorpe man when Sean O’Driscoll could have been picked off from Doncaster for £1m will set Burnley back five years and we won’t see them in the Premiership again for at least that long in my opinion.
At Bolton Coyle successfully fought the relegation battle he found himself in initially and then impressed all comers last season by building an attractive and competitive side which only finished as low as 14th because their form collapsed after a humiliating FA Cup semi final defeat by Stoke. That 5-0 set back, and five game losing run to finish the season, undermined Coyle’s good work and with player departures and an injury list that suggests they spent the summer re-enacting the Battle of the Somme, this could prove to be his toughest challenge yet.
Bolton , to begin with at least, are going to be relying heavily on the mainstays of their side – Kevin Davies and Gary Cahill. I say 'to begin with' because there remains some doubt that Cahill will remain at the Reebok through to the end of this transfer window and Davies cannot possibly be classed as a Premiership strike force by himself so reinforcements will be needed in that department. Tuncay has already arrived – the Turk was Middlesbrough’s Player of the Year two seasons ago but struggled to impress at Stoke where you either fit the style of play or you don’t and has since spent time with Wolfsburg.
Assuming Tuncay’s work permit renewal doesn’t come through in time for Saturday, as has been suggested, and Cahill stays to the weekend, highly likely as Bolton appear to have priced Arsenal out of the running and they have now turned their attentions to Birmingham 's Scott Dann, then we shall likely see a 451 set up from our opponents. Cahill will anchor the back four and it’s amazing how much his stock has risen while at one of the Premiership's more unfashionable clubs given that he was cast aside for relative peanuts by Aston Villa just three years ago. Cahill is now wanted by some of the UK 's top clubs and manager Owen Coyle says he believes he could go and play for some of the best sides in Europe . Villa meanwhile continue to preserve with the ridiculously overrated James Collins who they preferred to Cahill, a product of their youth academy, in the first instance.
Further forward expect a five man midfield with Davies up front on his own – an arrangement of necessity rather than choice given their lack of options in the attack. Davies is a strange character. He burst onto the scene as a youngster in the Chesterfield team that made it all the way to the FA Cup semi final before being eliminated by David Ellery and won a big money move to Southampton on the back of that before Blackburn spent what was at the time a whopping £7m to take him up to Ewood Park. Roy Hodgson was the manager of Rovers at that time, and given he has shown an ability to drive players onto heights they never previously looked capable of at Fulham, West Brom and abroad it seems strange that Davies was such an unmitigated disaster there.
It just seems that he's a player who has to feel wanted and loved to perform to the best of his ability. At Bolton, after a further spell with Southampton , he has become a centre forward feared by Premiership defenders for his physical approach to the game, if not his goal scoring record. Regularly the most fouled and most penalised player in the league (he set the Premiership record of 120 fouls in 2009/10 and then broke it last year by one) Davies has made it into England squads on occasions but his goal scoring record lets him down at the very highest level. He scored ten goals last season, nine the year before and 11 the year before that - respectable stuff but not exactly Les Ferdinand territory.
Davies' primary role is to hold the ball up and bring others into play, much like our own Heidar Helguson, so QPR would do well to look to pick up the second balls as they come away from Davies rather than engage in a physical battle with a player who has pummelled better centre halves than our motley crew into the ground.
He needs a partner really and it's easy to see why Coyle is chasing Tuncay, Ngog and others after a 1-0 pre-season defeat at home to Levante last Friday undermined the lack of firepower. In the meantime Nigel Reo Coker and Chris Eagles have been added to the midfield and will be under pressure to not only get up and support Davies wherever possible, but also to fill the boots of influential Stuart Holden and Lee Chung-Yong who are both long term injury victims. Eagles was consistently one of the Championship's better players last season with Burnley but won few friends at Loftus Road with some outrageous penalty box swan diving that eventually earned him a booking and an early hook from his manager as he lost his temper and looked set for a red.
There is much talk of QPR’s weakness, particularly pace wise, in the full back department. Bolton are trying to lure Shaun Wright Phillips from Man City who has enjoyed trips to Loftus Road in the past but a deal is unlikely before the weekend owing to his excessive wage demands. Another former City man Martin Petrov is therefore likely to pose the greatest threat in what is perceived as QPR’s weakest area.