Difference is, Allardyce's dreams involved money we didn't have, nor were willing to risk based on his liking for 'experience'. At least now we have (some) saleable assets. As we did under Megson.

Off the top of my head, I can only think of one allardyce player we actually got a fee for..

On the flipside, he didn't pay out a great deal in fees either. Transfer that is.

Anelka, Diouf, Faye, Meite, Nolan, Speed . . .

Apologies, I meant profit..

Some of us realised the incompetence of the manager was taking us down and costing us 25M quid, an amount confirmed by Gartside a bit sooner than others too....

Yep see ya mucker

You probably won't.... I'll be supporting my team..

No apologies necessary!

Anelka, Faye, and Nolan then. Broke even on Meite. Still a record that compares very favorably to Gary Megson. Isn’t Cahill the only Megson player we have sold for a (small) profit?

Lessons not learnt this season:
- Changing tactics when required
- Fitness training
- Defensive organisation
- Playing midfielders that can tackle
- Playing strikers that can score goals

If he has some epiphany this summer, and comes back with all these figured out, then he's definitely got my vote as well as Gartside's. Nothing would make me happier!

However, given his record, I'm pretty dubious that any of these will change, and just one of those factors I've listed above is pretty critical to success in football.

IIRC Nolan arrived at the club under Todd, not Allardyce.

Well he’s an academy lad so it’s hard to know where to give credit. I count Nolan in the Allardyce column as he certainly made his name under Big Sam’s tutelage.

Also, we made a very tidy profit on Ricketts.

we robbed Boro blind on that one!!

There is also Ali Al Habsi. (Sorry )

Allardyce wanted 30M quid to chase the Champions League dream. We didn't have it. Doubt any Bolton manager is going to get 30M to spend net.......

Every time someone mentions net spend on here it makes the baby Jesus cry.

To me it all seems plural, and so I have with the greatest respect ratbert I have to disagree that Garty is using injury as the ONLY reason behind our relegation although you cannot argue with his belief it was a huge factor. Throughout the majority of the season I have believed Gartsides hands are tied in regards to the management but has done the best he can, i.e formulate a plan if the worst becomes the worst and we get relegated. Sure in hindsight some may argue we should have got rid of Coyle in December and taken the compensation on the chin, but what if we'd only gone on to do a Wolves and found a lack of interested parties? The potential losses wouldn't just stop at 30 million...

Last season is now past, sure there's lessons to be learn't but I don't believe we should be too worried about what we cannot My only concern at this moment is balancing the books and it looks like him and Coyle are doing so. Plus the fact no one knows the details about Gartsides contract, and specifically any wage/bonus structure, it again seems a tad to speculate. Over 30 years he's been with us through the bad times and the good and I hope his pay has reflected the health and placing of the club.

I don’t even know that we needed to sack Coyle and bring in a new man. Gartside just needed to say Coyle would be fired if we were relegated. It was just always so obvious that failure WAS an option. There was no incentive for Coyle to modify what he was doing.

I honestly wonder what people think Chairmen do. I don't think it is play mind games with managers so they really do try to keep us up.

Way I see it, for whatever reasons, presumably money, we're keeping Coyle, and seem to have been doing all year. In that case the Chairman should have been doing nothing but support him publicly. Can't fathom any criticism on that front.

Whether or not he should have sacked him, well I think he should (I imagine ED has a fairly massive say too, like) so that can go as a negative. Along with Carling Cup Final and Sammy Lee. All qualified negatives. Not a bad record when you stack it up against the last 11 years.

Coyle - "When I came in as manager (in 2010), rather than just concentrating on the football I looked at our budget and how we could help as a football club. I think it would have been remiss of me not to."

Considering recent developments (e.g. a 15 month slide followed by relegation), maybe it was remiss of Gartside not to get Owen to concentrate on football, and leave the financial management to the man who's paid quite handsomely to do so - himself.