Aaaand we lose 2-0 to Burnley looking nothing like a relegated Prem team and more like a relegation threatened Championship team. 1 shot on target says it all. Positives are Sordell until half time, Lee when he has the ball at his feet (he's poor at doing anything with it though). Hall of shame: Tim "wimp" Ream, who was looking out of his depth in the Prem and looked out of his depth today Kevin "stump" Davies Mark "fatty" Davies Keith "Yellow card" Andrews Owen "Feckin'" Coyle.
Not only that he signs a multimillion pound defender and leaves him on the bench. The man has no clue. I don't believe any of these players are as bad as they look so I can only point the finger at the manager. Derby on tuesday night, I was going to go but feck that.
You know what the real problem is? There are still Bolton fans willing to give him a chance. 18 months of shit and they still want to give him a chance because he played for us during an iconic period. This is one of the reasons we're going down the shitter, any other manager would have been out last October.
We beat Derby 2-0 on Monday, throughly undeserved as it was. We play Forest at home tonight and I feel this game will be a good indicator as to how our season will go. In other news Coyle is interviewed on the main site regarding Stuart Holden and his recovery. It's very vague, even the October return date seems to have vanished. I have a suspicion that Holden may never play football again, you just don't come back from long term knee injuries like this.
2-2 draw with Forest, Eagles and Sordell scored. Chris Eagles showing yet again that he's the best winger at the club, if CYL showed half Eagle's ability the Korea forum would be proclaiming him as the next Messi. As it is Lee's got some fancy footwork but he's in and out of the game a lot and lacks end product. Andrews and Davies in midfield doesn't work, Mills is an absolute stump but Zat Knight has put in yet another good performance.
Yeah, I really wonder whether he'll ever return. Would be such a pity if that was so after the season he had. I think Chungy will take a while to get back into form, he's going to face rougher opposition at this level so adapting is going to be doubly hard. Also didn't realise how much football the Championship involved. Three games already...
Looks like we're going to pay £3 million for Jay Spearing from Liverpool. Coyle snags yet another bargain /sarcasm Seriously this guy has wasted £4 million on Ngog, £4 million on Sordell, £2.5 million on Ream, £2 million on Mills, £2.5 million on Alonso... You know what's even worse? Darren Pratley, who was deemed good enough to start in our midfield last season, can't get in in place of Keith Andrews who himself is likely to give way for Jay Spearing if the deal comes off. Coyle is clueless, if Pratley isn't good enough now he clearly wasn't good enough then, but we all knew that anyway.
The good news is that Spearing only wants a loan move. I'm not opposed to having the lad here but not for £3 million . Frankly I don't want Coyle to spend any more money, he's signed these players so he needs to get the best out of them (which he won't). It seems a long time ago that we had Holden and Muamba #1 and #2 for tackles in the Premier League and a scarily high pass completion rate for the two of them (though if YA forum is anything to go by it was all Holden ) I said at the time it's a worrying statistic if your two central midfielders are continually tackling, as it turned out it was an omen of things to come. There's 36 hours or so left til the transfer window closes (for permanent transfers) I wonder if we'll see any movement out of the club in that time? I always suspected Lee would move but I don't think he's shown enough if the few games so far this season to grab a move back to the Prem. I know the Korea forum are desparate for him to move but I say he's got to perform much better than he has and for a start he needs to stop being overshadowed by Eagles. Mark Davies is another who should be on his way back to the Prem but his performances have been terrible. That said they aren't inherently bad players. There are poor performers all throughout the squad and I think there's only one place to lay the blame in that case... Hypothetical situation of the week: What would the Yanks Abroad forum look like if Chris Eagles was American?
Tim Ream is having a 'mare Adam Bogdan is having a 'mare LCY not worthy of his place in the side, Petrov should come on. Kevin Davies....
Phil Gartside tweeted "Absolutely gutted for our fantastic support. You deserve much better. So far not good enough" Read into that what you will.