Comments on: Unfashionable Megson still not everyone’s cup of tea

By: Strick

Strick — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:42:42 +0000

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.

By: Mycroft Holmes

Mycroft Holmes — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:29:20 +0000

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.

By: birch

birch — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:20:10 +0000

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 Â£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!

By: iqnadirshah

iqnadirshah — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:47:43 +0000

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…………

By: Manny Road

Manny Road — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:32:49 +0000

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.

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:25:44 +0000

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.

By: TigerTerry

TigerTerry — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:59:26 +0000

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.

By: Birch

Birch — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:51:40 +0000

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 Â£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!