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Set Pieces - No More Mr Nice Guy

Author: KeeeeeeeBaaaaaaab / Date: Sunday 10 January 2010

Bolton Wanderers are now officially more evil than the Nazis, because they have appointed a new manager. Will we ever be loved?

So, here we go again. The knives are again well and truly out for BWFC, and they’re being thrown from all corners of the footballing world. Every neutral has wanted Bolton to be relegated for years because their football isn’t entertaining enough, because that’s all that matters. Every neutral wants Bolton to be relegated because their fans were unhappy that their underachieving manager didn’t have the team playing football that was either effective or entertaining. And every neutral now wants Bolton relegated because they recruited a manager from a different club.

Time was Owen Coyle was popular amongst the footballing fraternity. His Burnley side were playing the type of football that was, to use the common and annoying parlance, “played the right way”. Presumably “the right way” because they’re not using bazookas. Beano was receiving plaudits from everyone during their run to the semi finals of the League Cup. And one glowing reference came from the opposing managerwhen beating the English champions in his second game in the Premier League. Even when the wheels started coming off and his team’s deficiencies were starting to be exploited as the season progressed, young Owen was still given the backing of all and sundry because of the mythical creature of “football philosophy”.

Now that goodwill has evaporated because he’s no longer manager of this year’s cute little urchins of the top table. I don’t mean that as any sort of disrespect of Burnley – every year the whole of the less broad-minded country adopt one team as their little puppy. A ruffle of the hair, pop a little sweetie in the mouth, pinch the cheek and give a drawling “awwwww, bless ‘em”, before the discreet mutterings of “give it a year, then put it in a sack and take it down the canal”. Last season it was Hull, the season before Derby, the season before that Watford. Even we had it in 2001, before we defecated on all that is pure and good about English football and finished two points clear of the 1966 World Cup winners.

But Beano’s left the cute little puppy now, and gone to the scabby, rabid, three legged mutt that even Battersea Dog’s Home nearly put a gun to. The one team in the land that is, to quote one Guardian writer, “a byword for all that is unloved and unlovely about modern football”. And, because of that, “he’s scum. It can only be about money. He’s got no loyalty. He’s a Judas. It’s a sideways move. I hope THEY go down.” And that’s not just the understandable reaction of Burnley fans. Everyone’s joined in, all the way to Piers Morgan, who questioned the decency and professionalism of Coyle. Which would have been a valid point of view had it not come from someone who thought false pictures of false soldiers doing a toilet on false Iraqi prisoners and using them to tarnish the Government in a national newspaper was decent and professional.

Personally I do think it’s a sideways move – Burnley are on an even keel with Bolton this season, and both have a similar potential chance of success by dint of location, size of town, size of support and size of ground. If Burnley spent nine years in this division, they’d probably be in a similar situation to our current situation. But, because he’s not moving to one of the more respected clubs around us in the table, it’s all immoral and stupid.

Coyle’s loyalty has been brought into question. Simple answer is this – the club he served as a player fifteen years ago must have made one hell of an impression on him, and he wants to return to a club he feels a lot of affinity for. It doesn’t matter if he only made 50-odd appearances for the club. Whilst I think the numerous fans labelling his playing days as “legendary” is overdoing it more than a tad, he occasionally played an important part in arguably the most important modern era of the club. He scored vital goals, particularly in the FA Cup run and the play off final. His time is always seen with affection, as it coincided with a major cup final, promotion to the top tier and a popular strikeforce of Beano, McGinlay and Paatelainen (with de Freitas playing a bit part that, by dint of two goals at Wembley, is even more falsely seen as “legendary”).

I’d say he IS being loyal - to Bolton Wanderers. Not that anyone would believe it if he came out and said it at his first press conference. I can understand Burnley fans questioning his loyalty to them, but not for all and sundry to question Coyle’s loyalty and integrity. I very much doubt he’s taken a pay cut to come to Bolton, but surely to move because of his love for a club should be applauded in these days of greed and apparent immorality. Because, as we all know, all the people questioning people’s loyalty in football wouldn’t move jobs for a tenner a week pay rise, would they?

Some people are already writing off Coyle’s chances of success because he got Burnley to play the sort of football they like, and Bolton don’t. He’s a good manager going to a bad club because of the way the football’s played, and it won’t work. So the “good manager” being spoken about has been undermined by the assumption that he’ll try and completely revolutionise the way his new team play in the first two minutes of his first match. Therefore, bad management. If he’s that good a manager, he’ll start off identifying the strengths of the squad, and adapting them to what he feels is the best way to perform.

Open season of Bolton Bashing started in 2003, then subsided to a general apathy when we weren’t finishing in the top ten. It started again when fans unhappy with abject performances rendering a return of less than a point per league game voiced this dissatisfaction. Now it’s back and fiercer than ever. And because of this, in a strange, perverse way, I’ll be happy with whatever outcome in May. Stay up, and Coyle has not only vindicated the bile currently aimed at him, he’s also depressed the footballing world yet again because the horrible gits from just off the M61 are still stinking up the place. Go down, and we can finally stop listening to the constant crap from everyone about us without actually thinking first.