Ahead of Saturday's trip to struggling Bolton, Rob Latham from the Lion of Vienna blog talks to us about Wanderer's ongoing crisis on and off the field.

Off the field, how have Bolton got themselves into this mess?

RL: While all Bolton fans loved the glory years with the likes of Jay-Jay Okocha, Youri Djorkaeff, Nicolas Anelka and co at the club, it came at a cost financially. To simplify a very long story, we spent far too much on players and wages and the board repeatedly failed to plan ahead when the downfall began after the departure of Sam Allardyce. Case in point being signing Johan Elmander for £12m in 2008, only to let him leave on a free transfer three years later after scoring just 22 goals.

The most worrying thought is that the worst is probably still yet to come. We’ve had debts of up to £180 million, which were all owed to our owner Eddie Davies, who has now written off that debt. But the big problem now is that there’s no money in the bank to keep the club running, and pay staff and players. That means we’ve had two days in court and just managed to avoid being put into administration, but that could well happen on the next court date — which is on Monday.

Off the field, how can they get themselves out of it?

RL: The ideal solution would be to find a rich owner, a la Manchester City. But realistically, that seems unlikely — who would want to buy a club in the state we find ourselves in?

There are apparently several options on the table, including a couple of consortiums that were led by former players Dean Holdsworth and Stelios Giannakopoulos. However, despite their undoubted interest in a deal, they clearly didn’t have the financial backing to convince Eddie Davies they could keep the club running and we’ve had mixed reports about what’s actually happening.

There’s also another option in the works from a newly formed Bolton Wanderers Supporters’ Trust and there have been rumours this week that a deal is close with several parties, so we’re still playing a waiting game ahead of Monday.

On the field, how have Bolton got themselves into this mess?

RL: That’s the million dollar question. Historically, you can take it all the way back to losing Stuart Holden to injury against Manchester United four years ago. We were flying high in the league and we were in the FA Cup Semi-Finals, but without him it all started to fall apart and we got humiliated by Stoke at Wembley a few months later. The next season the Fabrice Muamba incident happened, and the team capitulated even further into relegation from the Premier League.

Since then we’ve continued to decline in the Championship, despite having players that on paper should be better than they perform week after week. The end of the Dougie Freedman reign was dark, but we’ve plunged well below that in the last few months.

On the field, how can they get themselves out of it? Is it possible?

RL: I think relegation is unavoidable now. We’ve won four league games all season and, going back to last season, we’ve only won five our last 40 league matches. We also haven’t won away from home for more than ten months, going back to beating Cardiff in April. We also have a really tough run of fixtures coming up, including away fixtures against four of the top eight, so it seems unlikely that our form will dramatically improve enough to be able to stay up.

Any real judgement, positive or negative, of Neil Lennon's performance or is he completely hamstrung by the situation?

RL: It seems tough to place too much blame on Neil Lennon. I think he has been heavily hamstrung by the financial situation, as evidenced by the fact that we weren’t even allowed to sign Shola Ameobi — who is old and awful — even though he offered to play for free. I don’t think any manager would be able to dig us out of the hole we’re in.

Some fans are beginning to lose patience and getting on his back, mainly because they think he makes substitutes too late and seems to have blind faith towards Liam Feeney no matter how badly he plays. However, he does have to take some blame for the players he brought in over the summer. He signed three defenders — Prince, Francesco Pisano and Jose Manuel Casado — who have already been allowed to leave the club, as well as Lawrie Wilson, who was loaned out to Peterborough last month, and Gary Madine, who seems incapable of scoring open goals from six yards out.

But for me the blame has to sit with the players. The likes of Mark Davies and Darren Pratley are, or at least were, Premier League level players but simply haven’t been delivering consistently to the level they should be.

Star men and weak links in the side?

RL: Our star men are probably Wellington Silva and Zach Clough. When he fancies it, Silva can be a really dangerous player that can make something happen out of nothing, as he showed when he came on at Loftus Road earlier this season — but unfortunately, when he doesn’t, he’s a really frustrating player. Clough is easily the best player in our squad but he’s just returning from a few weeks out with a hip injury, so whether he’ll be match fit for the QPR game remains to be seen.

In terms of weak links, how long have you got? Last week at Brighton we had a centre midfielder playing at right-back and a centre-back at left-back. But the weakest link through the season has to be our woeful defence, and in particular probably Dorian Dervite at centre-back. Oh, and Gary Madine is incapable of scoring open goals from six yards out, and Emile Heskey should have retired about ten years ago, but at least he tries bless him.

The Twitter @LionofViennaSte @robilaz @loftforwords

Pictures — Action Images

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TacticalR added 23:35 - Feb 18 Thanks to Rob. It's interesting that clubs like Bolton, Fulham and Blackburn that have had a fairly long run in the Premiership and looked like becoming established clubs have come to grief. Perhaps one of the dangers of feeling established is that deals that don't seem too outlandish when you've got the prospect of Premiership cash coming in start looking very outlandish if you do get relegated. I thought that Dean Holdsworth's bid before Christmas wasn't considered serious as he didn't have enough money to run the club, but I see from today's press that he is back in contention. Good luck to all at Bolton.

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PunteR added 23:54 - Feb 18 Gulp!. There's plenty there for us to be worried.. Even a £180mill write off hasn't helped them.
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JAPRANGERS added 07:41 - Feb 19 Only won 4 league games all season?? Well not to worry, here comes QPR to give them a fifth win.....
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QPRski added 10:02 - Feb 19 One can draw a few parallels to our situation and as to what may happen if the club is not managed correctly I sympathise and wish Bolton all the very best to get out of this predicament. I just hope that we do not donate three points on Saturday.
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Myke added 10:10 - Feb 19 Clive, you could copy and paste Rob's comments about Bolton's financial situation an attribute to them to any QPR fan. Scary stuff. Next season will be crucial on and off the pitch
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daveB added 11:37 - Feb 19 They have only lost 3 times at home this season so doubt it will be easy
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AgedR added 18:52 - Feb 19 It's seems madness that players (or more likely their agents) will see a club potentially go to the wall rather than negotiate a new wages structure. Football is in a funny old state.
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enfieldargh added 19:14 - Feb 19 2-0 then, Warren Feeney and a Gary Madine tap in from 6 years
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enfieldargh added 19:16 - Feb 19 Hold up its worse than I thought. Warren Feeney and Gary Madine both scored as Bolton surged into a 2-0 lead earlier this season, so whats this guy on about!!!
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