When Bolton paid a club record fee of £8.2 million for the Swedish striker Johan Elmander, a few eyebrows were raised. Yet, the former Toulouse striker had been one of the most consistent players in the French league during his time for the Téfécé and had built a reputation as a creative deep lying centre forward. Unfortunately, joining a side whose manager lacked any creative spark seemed an unusual step for the likable Swede.

It was as unusual for a manager as lacking in creative idea’s as Gary Megson decision to sign him. To put it mildly, Elmander had a nightmare first 18 months at Bolton, playing in a defensively minded side and struggling to cope with being used as a main striker, rather than his usual deeper role. His play suffered, his reputation fell and a nightmare 9 month barren spell seemed to be a millstone he couldn’t shift.

The sacking of Megson was not only a god send for the Bolton faithful, but for the striker as well. Owen Coyle brought a breath of fresh air to the Reebok stadium that removed all the negativity that had built up under the previous two regimes. Despite the continual negative press that Bolton continue to garner, Coyle’s appointment has been one of continual improvement and changing perceptions.

It’s always easy to label sides such as Bolton Wanderers as purely physical, but Coyle is trying his upmost to change the footballing opinion of the side. Any side that had players such as jay Jay Okocha and Youri Djorkaeff cannot seriously be considered a long ball side. To counter this though the lack of credit for players such as Jussi Jaaskelainen and Kevin Davies showed their achievements were never considered seriously.

Coyle’s appointment has seen Elmander return to his previous quality that he showed prior to joining Bolton. It’s not just a flash in a pan either, he’s been playing consistently well since Coyle took over in January this year. The manager clearly identified Elmander as key to creating a new Bolton Wanderers and the club is beginning to reap the dividends of the change. As an avid watcher of French football, I was always impressed with the strikers ability, skill and quality.

It was a real surprise to see him struggle so much and of course, some players for one reason or another, simply cannot cope with playing in a different league or a new country. Yet Elmander had adapted to playing in Norway, the Netherlands and France so much easier, it was strange to see him look so uncomfortable. Coyle clearly identified the problems and addressed them immediately, allowing Elmander to release the stresses that had clearly held him back.

This season has seen him already equal his league goal tally from last season with 3 to his name so far and Bolton bloodied Manchester United’s nose on Sunday. This is a side clearly on the up, playing attractive, positive football and finally seeing the best of Johan Elmander. It should be a good season for the Bolton faithful and one that will see them bloody a few more noses of more illustrious opponents. Elmander has the skills to unsettle the best defenders and I hope we seem him continue to get the goals his approach play this year clearly deserves.

There are green shoots of recovery around the Reebok Stadium, after several winters of discontent under Gary Megson. With Owen Coyle’s arrival, suddenly Bolton Wanderers are playing football again and trying to win games, rather than bore teams to death and hoof it skywards. Megson’s long ball banality has no place in modern football and I feel sorry for the next bunch of fans that have to suffer the tedium of his tactical ineptitude.

Thankfully, Phil Gartside realised that he preferred being the chairman of a Premiership club more than defending a manager who had lost the entire crowds respect. His own position was under threat and no matter how well a chairman and a manager get on, eventually it becomes a question of self preservation. Gartside made the selfish decision after two bad, bad managerial choices almost finished the club off. Now things are a whole lot rosier down Burnden Way and the club can look to a more positive future.

At the time when Coyle left, I was critical of the decision, mainly as I didn’t think Bolton could strike up the pace as quickly as they needed and Burnley seemed to be doing well. I didn’t understand it, but then again, not many people did other than Bolton Wanderers fans. The Green half of Glasgow were certainly left scratching their heads as they watched Tony Mowbray’s reign imploded in a series of bizarre transfer and selection issues and wondering how they couldn’t attract Burnley’s manager over the summer.

So Coyle kept his part of the bargain, he turned his back on devotion and demi-god status at Turf Moor, to ride to Boltons rescue and try and keep them in the Premiership. He did it and with points to spare, such was the dearth of quality shown by the bottom 3 sides for most of the season. Whilst the bottom 3 were nowhere near the worst the Premiership has seen, the lack of a consistent goalscorer in all three relegated sides was too much to bare.

Now Coyle has a few weeks off, and will look to pre-season training in July to begin to continue the good start he’s made to his 4th managerial position. Bolton fans came in for some criticism last season with their campaign to get rid of Gary Megson. “Ideas above their station” ” Spoilt by the Allardyce years” and “Small club punching above their weight” were just some of the delightful accusations levelled at the fans. Quite why wanting rid of a manager who messed up the biggest night in the clubs modern history and would send his teams out not to lose, rather than to try and win games is such a problem.

They pay money and are rightly entitled to their opinions, whether we agree with it or not. I’ve never understood how Gary Megson keeps getting jobs, his record other than at West Bromwich Albion is abysmal. Only Megson could unite Nottingham Forest and Leicester City fans in their hatred of him, such is the feeling of anger towards him from both sets of supporters. Now that takes some doing in anyone’s book, at least Coyle only has one clubs fans anger to deal with, probably for life. Bolton wasn’t a massive rescue job, he just needed to remind the players how to play football, as daft as that sounds.

He simply needed to get the core performers back in unison and on song. The spine of a decent Premiership side was always there, it just wasn’t allowed to be a football team. With Jaaskelainen, Davis, Elmander, Cahill, Taylor and Davies to call on, it simply needed the depressing air lifting from the place and things would soon settle down. The first 6 weeks were tough, but eventually, points started to come, performances started to come and the team began to climb the table.

Next season will be Coyle’s biggest test so far as a manager. He had nothing to lose at the other jobs he took, Burnley achieved more than even the most loyal fan could have imagined, but I doubt Bolton will be scraping around the relegation zone next season. Despite what their critics may say, Bolton have now been back in the top flight of football for ten years and are an established Premiership club. The troubles of the last 3 seasons should prove nothing more than a bad dream for the Wanderers fans, mid-table is more than realistic for next season.

Ah, Gary Megson, never a manager to pass the blame on to anyone else for his own shortcomings, has decided that today he would announce that certain players are trying to destabilise the club. After watching Sundays performance, I don’t blame them, they look a team with no self confidence, no belief and no faith in the manager. At least he’s not blaming the fans this week. It’s always some else’s fault in Gary Megson’s mind. On Sunday, they’d lost their zip. Now, dark forces are working against Gary Megson, not the fact he played two left wingers in the same midfield and substituted their best player on Sunday, Ricardo Gardner. Witchcraft is abound on Burnden Way in Megson’s eyes.

The fans do not need a reason to increase their dislike of a manager that they never wanted.The boo’s that came cascading down from the Reebok faithful when Ricardo Gardner was removed served to remind Megson that regardless of the chairman’s support, If enough fans stop going, it won’t matter. Money makes the world go round and Bolton’s gates have never been the highest. Currently 5,000 down on 2005-2006 season, even a local derby on Sunday against Blackburn couldn’t raise the attendance over 22,000.

To be honest, I think Gary Megson would lose a popularity contest if he was the only person in it and only his friends could vote. His dogmatic, banality at all costs style of football makes you want to stitch your eyelids together. That’s no attack on Bolton Wanderers, they have the quality of player to be able to get the ball down and play football. Under Allardyce, they attracted a quality of free signings and rough diamonds that played a high tempo, effective and physical game.Megson’s teams just won’t play football because he doesn’t know how to.

Under Megson, they look lost, without purpose and drive. A key point of this is Johan Elmander. Now, I’ve seen a bit of Elmander play over the last 3 or 4 years and right now, he looks like he’s never played the game before. There is no doubting that Elmander is a quality player and he made Toulouse a different side during his time there. Now, he looks like a fish out of water.Elmander is no Fernando Torres, but he’s a damn fine striker.

The chairman Phil Gartside has said there was no need to panic and he wasn’t the type to do so, but tell that to Sammy Lee. Gartside came out with this gem: “The season is 38 games and we are confident. We have been playing some good football, it’s been decent stuff. No one presses panic buttons around here. I have been in the game long enough not to do that.” Now I’ve yet to find a Reebok regular that would agree with any part of that statement.

Since Megson took over at the Reebok stadium, Bolton have played 92 games in all competitions under his stewardship. Incredibly, they’ve only won 26 of those matches. That’s a win ratio of 28.2% and Paul Hart who has so much to deal with and got sacked today had a win ratio at Pompey of 30%. With the fans baying for his blood, Bolton now face Fulham and Wolves away before Manchester City arrive and these are crucial games. The Christmas fixture computer has given them some tough local games and relegation six pointers, so things aren’t going to get any easier.

By once again blaming everyone else, Megson shows a thin skin to his limitations as a manager. As I mentioned earlier this year, Megson has a dreadful record as a manager, but keeps getting jobs. It astounds me how the same names keep going round and round and never achieving anything but the jobs keep coming. Mind you Megson claimed he’d been black balled after his dreadful spell at Nottingham Forest, which when you consider he only won 17 games out of 59, speaks for itself.

The dreaded vote of confidence has come, the fans are chomping at the bit to let him know just how little they think of him, attendances are falling, Megson is blaming the fans, the players and the club are second bottom. The question Bolton fans must be wondering is just how bad to things have to get at the Reebok before Megson gets sacked. We’ll find out soon enough if there is a happy ending in Horwich.

Well you’ve got to hand it to him, Gary Megson must have the thickest skin in professional football. I’ve seen him barracked by his own fans at 4 different clubs over the years and that’s some going, even in the fickle world of the football supporter. At a Nottingham Forest game, I saw fans come to blows trying to get to him, at Leicester I saw a fan throw his season ticket at him in his 3rd game in charge. At Bolton he famously finished last in an online poll with 1.7% of the vote behind A.N Other before being announced as manager.

It’s a weird situation when this kind of vitriol follows someone around throughout their career and he’s continually knocked noses out of joint wherever he’s been. Even as a player, whilst highly regarded, Brian Clough was disgusted with his pre-match ritual of throwing up before playing, so much so that he sold him on after only 4 months.

With the exception of the Leicester City job, out of his 8 managerial positions, he’s been sacked from 4 and resigned from 2. The two he left freely were Blackpool and Nottingham Forest, though for his own safety, I think he did well to get out of the City Ground alive. It’s the one thing that astounds me about managers, that whilst I appreciate the mangers success can only be as good as the tools at his disposal, why do so many bad managers keep getting work.

Now it may seem churlish to label Megson as a bad manager, but there is no doubting he is unpopular wherever he goes, with the exception of West Bromwich Albion. Albion were on a slippery slope when he came in and he got them in to the Premiership and they’ve been yo-yoing back and forth ever since, but good lord he plays awful football and that’s where the problem lies. My biggest criticism of him as manager of Bolton is his over reliance on the long ball game and consistently negative outlook.

The constant arguments between Megson and the Bolton fans took a new twist the other day when he said “We’re not Real Madrid”. I don’t think any Bolton fan is under the delusion that they expect the team to play as if they were, but surely Megson could try and pacify the fans rather keep coming out with statements that seem to deliberately antagonise them. With the players he has at his disposal, it’s not too far a jump for them to play football now and again.

The nucleus of a good side is there, with the likes of Matty Taylor, Sean Davis, Johan Elmander, the underrated Jussi Jaakelainen & Kevin Davies and Gary Cahill. Yet the negativity of the fans is beginning to drive a wedge between everyone at the Reebok Stadium. Did the Sam Allardyce reign give them a false level of optimism?

Some Bolton fans have never forgiven Megson for playing a reserve side in their biggest game for 50 years in the UEFA Cup. Megson’s idea was to rest the players for a Premier League game against Wigan the Sunday after, which they ironically lost.  That game against Sporting Lisbon was the high point of some Wanderers fans football lives and they resent the fact he didn’t care enough.Staying up was all that mattered and to some fans, that was a bridge too far.

No doubt, the most vitrolic Bolton fans are wanting him out, in 6 League and Cup games they’ve won two, both away from home. The win against Tranmere was no surprise, they are in big trouble already. If anything Megson would have been relived to see the pressure John Barnes is under at Prenton Park. The only win in the league was at troubled Portsmouth who can’t buy any luck at present.

Yet when Megson starts a home game playing with one striker what does he expect? By playing negative football at home, he promotes the negativity in the stands. Each fuels each other, Megson is now scared to lose games, the fans expect defensive, boring football. The fans boo, he complains about lack of support.  Trouble is, if Megson does go, who on earth will they bring in to replace him?