Adam Dennehey WAFU manager
So yesterday Bolton Wanderers have sacked Owen Coyle. Despite the club languishing in the bottom half of the Championship, on first impressions this does seem a very strange and sudden decision made by Bolton’s chairman Phil Gartside.
Despite being relegated from the Premier League last season, Bolton’s start to the season hadn’t been dismal. Yes they had only won 3 times in 10 league matches but with the International Break looming it was the window of opportunity that chairmen use to make a change and hopefully get someone in before league action resumes.
First thoughts are that Coyle’s been harshly treated. Here was a man who had made Bolton an attractive side to watch. Yes people that’s Bolton who under Sam Allardyce were labelled as one of the most boring sides to watch in the country, so much so that some fans called them anti-football, the so-called ‘Stoke’ of their-day before Stoke City were even relevant.
Neutrals across the country wanted Bolton to do well and under Coyle for the first season and a half that’s exactly what was happening. However things started really to go wrong in March of last year when Stuart Holden picked up a cruciate ligament injury when he came off worse from a challenge with Jonny Evans in Bolton’s 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford to Manchester United.
That ruled the American out for the remainder of the 2010/11 season and the whole of last season bar one League Cup appearance. In truth the American sadly hasn’t recovered. If that wasn’t bad enough after losing an FA Cup semi-final 5-0 to Stoke in July 2011 talented South Korean midfielder Lee Chung Yong picked up a broken leg and only played twice last season. Tyrone Mears who Coyle had worked him at Burnley broke his leg in a training session in pre-season.
Big clubs can afford to lose key players. Bolton sadly couldn’t and yes fans may argue that Coyle had money and time to bring players in but despite starting the season with a 4-0 at QPR, Bolton’s season never got going.
Yes some fans may claim that he would have suffered relegation as a manager from the Premier League had he stayed at Burnley instead of moving over to their arch-rivals after that lovely chap Gary Megson was sacked and that Bolton as a club have been slowly declining ever since Sam Allardyce left them in 2007.
That may be true but Coyle’s a good young manager who shouldn’t have to long too wait until he’s back in a job. He wasn’t allowed Danny Sturridge and Jack Wilshere on-loan if he wasn’t a bad manager and perhaps a blow like this will enable him to take a bit of time out to sit down and reassess things.
Who should replace him at Bolton? Two names stand out like a sore thumb and they are Billy Davies and Mick McCarthy. Both know how to succeed in the Championship, both have a great record of building teams without having too much money to spend and both would given two seasons get the club back in the top-flight.
Of course ex-United players Roy Keane and Ole Gunnar Solksjaer will be linked with the job. Keane has openly admitted in the past that Ipswich as a club wasn’t the right fit for him after his time with Sunderland. Bolton would be the perfect club for him to get back into the saddle and prove his critics (and there are lots of them!) wrong.
For Ole it would be a brave choice to leave Norwegian side Molde so soon, especially when the club are in the midst of a Europa League group campaign. However sometimes an opportunity is too good to be turned down and it would be a great chance for him to prove himself in England and help re-build a club that has suffered a lot recently.
He had a great spell managing United’s reserves team and is destined to return to England as a manager in his own-right. He would be a brave pick given his age but he has had no emotional scars of disappointment like some of the other names being thrown about have which could well work to his advantage.
By Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87
