Bolton & Owen Coyle

It’s been a difficult week for most people in this country, as the cold, frosty conditions have marred the week for young, old, cheerful and miserable. Yes, snow has dared to rear its often ugly head to see Great Britain again, but certainly for me that has become distasteful and boring after a while.

If you think you week hasn’t been the most enduring of weeks, then perhaps you are showing jealousy to fans of Burnley, Bolton and Preston; who have been busy creating atmosphere in the Lancastrian air, to mare Mark Hughes’ exit from Manchester City and has even made people forget about Premier League champions Manchester United.

I rate Coyle highly, just like Phil Brown at Hull he has made fantastic strides with a club that I expected to rot at the wrong end of the second tier, taking the side to the gloss and glamour of the Premiership.

I thought Coyle had done so well at Burnley that when Gary Megson was dismissed as the gaffer of their local rivals, Bolton, that Wanderers wouldn’t bother looking to their former centre forward, and Coyle would not be interested in a switch to the Reebok. For me it is certainly a sideward step, and it is potentially a backwards step.

It is an opinion of many, Bolton fans and neutral alike, that Wanderers have failed to adequately replace Sam Allardyce; who after guiding Bolton back to the Premier League, established the side in the division and lead them into Europe, abandoned ship for Newcastle United in 2007. During his time at Bolton, “Big Sam” was also strongly linked with the England National Team coach in 2006, before the football association eventually plumped with Steve McClaren.

Although Coyle is the third successor to Allardyce’s throne the pressure is still heavily on the former Republic of Ireland international, to keep the Trotters in the top flight. Big Sam created an ethos for Bolton fans that they can believe that success is easily achievable, but his successors have proved that path to be very difficult indeed.

Thinking back to 2007 I believed that the appointment of Sammy Lee as Big Sam’s successor to be a shrewd move. You often are unaware at football clubs how much of an influence the assistant manager has. This has been shown at Leeds United, as when assistant manager Gus Poyet left Elland Road in October 2007, when Dennis Wise’s team slowly began to look a poorer side despite the same manager still being at the helm. Incidentally earlier that October, Lee was dismissed as Bolton manager after a dismal run of form has seen them struggle in the division. Lee still remains a popular character because of his time as Allardyce’s assistant, but it is a poor example when we talk about assistant managers taking full control of the senior side.

Bolton had then become the latest club to attempt to the ‘promote from within’ technique that has been so successful at Liverpool when Bill Shankly had be succeeded by Bob Paisley. But on this occasion, at Bolton, it had failed and Bolton’s pride had been dinted.

But it wasn’t damaged too badly. Bolton were still a good side, and Phil Gartside, the Bolton chairman was expected to appoint a good new manager. I think the nation gasped when it was named who it was going to be. Gary Megson. He wasn’t number one choice however approaches for Steve Bruce and Chris Coleman were turned down. It wasn’t that Megson was particularly the cheap option either. He was struggling to revamp a sinking ship at Leicester City, and he was freshly appointed, which to me says that compensation may have been expensive. Megson’s previous position had been at Nottingham Forest, where despite, by League One standards, over-spending, he had failed to win promotion. Previously to this he had succeeded in winning promotion to the Premier League, at West Brom, however he was dismissed following disagreements with the board. So it was a risky decision to say the least.

So this proved to be the case, as Bolton chanted calls for the manager and his chairman to be removed from their positions from a very early stage. Megson had an unattractive and largely unsuccessful style of management, and the fans were bemused. In the football club’s best interests, sacking Megson was the right decision as a business and its customers shouldn’t be forced to co-operate together with the problems that Megson put upon himself.

This time the appointment process has been often a farce. Bolton’s pursuit of Owen Coyle has been very public and events have been visible to the public. Yes it made it more intriguing but it hasn’t reflected well for Burnley or Bolton. Now-Blackburn manager, Allardyce has also stated this opinion claiming that he wouldn’t like being in Owen Coyle’s position, with the entire world airing its opinion on whether Coyle is making the right move.

It makes you wonder what Bolton’s aims are. They have signed someone with just a few months of Premier League experience and yet have poached a manager from a similar sized club, which shows ambition. Yet Bolton’s aim in the near future is survival, Coyle has to quickly thrust players together who are off form, despite a thin history of this feat. Does this move suggest that Bolton want to be back in Europe in the short term, despite Coyle hardly knowing the division?

For me, Coyle is a very good manager but there’s a right place at the right time scenario, and for me Coyle is a few years too late. I can only see this switch being a poor move for him, he has a brilliant reputation at the moment with a club he already knows well, and he’s dived head first into the unknown. If it works, however, it is a masterstroke.