Unfashionable Megson still not everyone’s cup of tea
function over form, and then some...
Sitting comfortably in mid-table, after two wins and clean sheets in a row, you’d think Bolton fans would be fairly content with their team’s form, and their manager Gary Megson.
After all, Megson kept Bolton up in remarkable circumstances last year, after Sammy Lee’s disastarious tenure in charge. And there was even a decent UEFA Cup run to boot, with memorable results against the likes of Bayern Munich and Red Star Belgrade something to savour.
Yet there are still rumblings of discontent from the Wanderers faithful. The football is too negative, apparantly, with Bolton more concerned about keeping a clean sheet than actually going and scoring at the other end.
But there lies the problem. Because football, first and foremost, is a results business. There’s just too much money involved for teams to go out and attack these days. The risk is simply too much, with the money in the Premiership so vital, especially for teams like Bolton. Relegation would be disastarous. A healthy dose of realism is required, and Megson realises this.
Taking a step back to last season, and after the departure of Sam Allardyce, Bolton decided to change things. Sammy Lee attempted to get Wanderers playing a more expansive brand of football after the direct style of Allardyce, but ultimately failed, with only five points from their opening ten games a poor return. The experiment went wrong, and could so easily have cost Bolton their Premiership status.
So Gartside went back to basics, and went back to what he knew. Lee was given the boot after a matter of months, and to the dismay of many, Megson was appointed. Fans at the Reebok Stadium were outraged, so much so that only 1.7 per cent of fans were in favour of his appointment, according to a website poll.
Talk about starting on the wrong foot.
Then again, this is nothing new for Megson. He’s never been a popular manager, with his pragmatic style of play never endearing him to fans, who prefer to see attractive, attacking football. And who doesnt? But pretty football doesnt get you out of a relegation battle, does it? It’s about rolling your sleeves up, working hard, and getting the basics right.
So Megson got to work, and got Bolton doing the basics properly again. Of course, it took time, but slowly but surely, the Trotters began to get results. They were hard working, organised, defensively sound, and strong from set-pieces. The old Bolton Wanderers were back, doing what they did best, playing to their strengths, and doing what they needed to do to stay up. It wasnt about winning popularity contests, it was about achieving results, however way they could.
What’s more, the loss of influential striker Nicolas Anelka in January was seen to be the last straw by many, with the goals supply surely drying up. He was seen as the only bit of genuine quality in an otherwise mediocre side. Without Anelka, there were no goals, and seemingly no hope.
But Megson didn’t panic, and strenghened elsewhere in the squad. Matt Taylor, Gary Cahill, and Gretar Steinsson were all drafted in, amongst others. Once again, they weren’t signings to get the fans pulses racing, but they were hard working and committed players who would give their all for the cause. And the new signings certainly had the desired effect, as the likes of Cahill and Taylor all played their part in keeping Bolton in the Premiership.
And so Bolton did stay up, in what was quite frankly a remarkable achievement. At one stage, Megson’s side looked dead and buried, and some journalists had wrote them off completely, condemning the team to relegation. But in the end, we were all proved wrong, as The Trotters pulled off what was in my eyes one of the greatest turnarounds in recent history.
There was even the added bonus of a profitable run in the UEFA Cup, though the competition eventually proved to be too much of a distraction, as Megson put the club’s domestic campaign first. Once again, Megson was criticised for not giving the competition enough respect, but in the end his decision proved to be vindicated.
Megson was hired to save the team from relegation, nothing more, nothing less. A European adventure just wasn’t in the job description.
Moving onto this season, and it’s been more of the same from Bolton and Megson, and the fans don’t like it. Sure, it’s been an inconsistent start, and results havent always been good. And suprise suprise, the style of play hasn’t changed.
But given the way Megson turned things round last season, you’d think Bolton fans would be more patient towards the man who kept them up against the odds last season.
The abuse that Megson suffered at the hands of his own fans away at Tottenham was nothing short of ridiculous, and in my opinion completely undeserved.
Then again, football fans have notoriously short memories, don’t they? Megson out? Be careful what you wish for…
This is one of the most absurd pieces of journalism I have ever read. I am a Bolton fan who travels home and away and I will give you the other side of the story.
The man is detested by nearly all the football fans he has served, Nottingham Forrest, Leicester and Blackpool to name three. I have spoken to West Brom fans that have told me that they where not completely enamoured with him as well. When you recruit at a managerial level you have to look at what the candidate has done in the past to predict what they will do in the future. Gary Megson had not shown anything on his CV to warrant the Bolton Job.
Its is a common assumption outside of Bolton that Megson had us back to playing as we did under big Sam, not true! Megson had exactly the same squad at his disposal as Big Sam had 6 months previously when he got us into the UEFA cup with a 7th place finish. Big Sams teams would play some great football and regularly dominate many so called big clubs home and away. Gary megsons teams didn’t have half of this ability. Gary Megson has spent over £30m in 9 months, more than Big Sam got in 8 years!
With regards to the UEFA cup run a lot of fans spent a lot of money going out their to watch Bolton play away at sporting Lisbon in the last 16, Megson came out shortly before the tie which was a very winnable game saying he will play the 2nd team so the first can concentrate on the Wigan 6 pointer on the Sunday. The reserves narrowly lost in Lisbon and the first team lost at Wigan, we played against 10 men for over 70 minutes but where a million miles behind Wigan.
With regards to the players getting into gear in the last few games many reports from inside the squad suggest this was in spite of megson and not because of him.
This season our start was only narrowly better than that of Sammy Lees the year before. Our football going forward is the worst in the league! We stick 10 men behind the ball and play like a non league team would in the FA Cup in the 3rd round. We have scored the fewest goals from open play this season, we rely on goalkeeping errors (Robert green gave us 3) and long free kicks into the box.
Megson gets abuse from the fans because he deserves it, he is a disgrace who is robbing a living! He was completely out of his depth at spurs, their keeper was having a nightmare and Megson couldn’t make the most of it! The crowd was crying out for Gardner and Riga to be brought on, megson waited until we where 2-0 down with 4 mins left on the clock! We are a club that under megson are just waiting to go down, if not this season then next with absolutely nothing to look forward to in the meantime!
Hull City fan here.
I was at the Bolton game on Saturday and although you cannot knock Bolton for playing as they did and getting the result, it was, in truth, anti-football of the worst kind. Effective, maybe, but terrible to watch.
Much of the criticism levelled at BSA is unjustified. With players like Okocha, Campo, Stelios, Djorkaeff etc., it was hardly all kick and rush. It was pragmatic football, and it was much better than Megson’s prosaic product, I feel compelled to say.
I’m a Bolton fan, but I have only been one for about two years and live in America, and therefore don’t have the perspective that Birch does. That said, I think journalists have been a little hasty in writing Bolton off as a long-ball, anti-football team, considering that at times we have played some attractive on-the-ground passing. The problem has obviously been scoring goals, but I think that’s more a function of not having good shooters than of sticking ten men behind the ball. E.g. against West Ham we were actually looking quite sharp on the ball and moving it around well, but it took Robert Green errors for us to get it into the net because of a lack of striking ability.
As far as Megson goes, I have no strong feelings either way – I’m unconvinced by him, but I think given that he did enough to keep the team up last season he deserves a full season at the helm before his position is reassessed.
I stopped reading after the first line… ’sitting comfortably in mid-table’… how is three points off the bottom and just two from the relegation zone ‘comfortable’? Anything written after is completely flawed by the first sentence.
So Sam Allardyce finished in the top 10 and got the team into UEFA cup. But there were times when they almost got relegated under him. And lets not forget, he left the team in the worst way possible. He never viewed the Reebok Stadium as his true home and was always opining about other free positions. How does Megson look to you beloved Wanderer fans? The guy looks happy and proud to be there. He has got that brain dead Gardener to score goals and pass properly. He was never popular anywhere but sincerely hope the Bolton faithful realise what they have…………
The simple reason Allardyce left was due to the fact that he was ambitious! Will i blame the man for being ambitious? NOT AT ALL!
The straw that broke the camels back was January transfer window 2007! On January 1st we travelled to Anfield knowing a win would put us in 3rd place with over half a season played level on games with Arsenal/Liverpool.
Sam Allardyce wanted to put in a 500k offer to Middlesboror for Mark Viduka, Phil Gartside our chairman didnt provide the funds. This was the deterioration of the relationship! He decided to leave in the January and his good friend Freddy Shepard knew it.
Allardyce left but i would not blame him, he needed some funds to keep us as a top 6/8 club and they would not give them.
Since then we have given Megson over £30m! Most of which went on overpriced players!
The man is a joke, try and find a football fan who has supported a Megson team that doesnt agree!
It’s ridiculous articles like this one, that keep Megstump in gainful employment.
To anyone who’s still prepared to give him a chance, re-read Birch’s excellent first comment and have a good, hard think about how we are really performing.
The man is clearly out of his depth and any success we see on the pitch is clearly due to a combination of good fortune, bad play by the opposition and the players eschewing Megstump’s (limited) tactical decisions and prefering to play their own way, in order to try and get a result.
He was NOT instrumental in keeping us up last term: if we hadn’t seen injuries to Rasiak and Cohen early on against West Ham, thus forcing him to bring on more attacking players and change the team’s formation, we would has seen yet another inept, defensive minded performance.
And the way Birmingham and Reading imploded helped our survival chances dramatically, as well.
We have been very fortunate to amass three wins this season and people should not be taken in by the fact that we aren’t still rooted in the bottom three. It’s yet another false dawn and over the course of a full season, if Megstump is allowed to remain in charge, we will struggle.
Throw into the mix his arrogant, sneering, contemptuous comments about us fans, and you may well get some insight as to why we’re not overly enamoured with the idiot.
So Mr Murphy, your considered opinion is that, ‘The abuse that Megson suffered at the hands of his own fans away at Tottenham was nothing short of ridiculous, and in my opinion completely undeserved’?
Presumably, having read the responses to your pile of nonsense, you’ll now agree that any ridicule you have brought upon yourself is thoroughly deserved.