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choggy

Coach
Joined
Dec 10, 2006
Messages
595
Location
West Midlands
Excuse the rambling, I have a soft spot for Burnley....

Owen Coyle to Bolton. If there ever was a mismatch made in heaven then this is it.

Up until a few years ago Southend v Burnley was a regular fixture. Dour and difficult to play away and we'd look to get points off them at home. Yet I always had a bit of respect for them. They always had a a large fanbase because their dads, their grandads and their great grandads used to support them because once upon a time probably during or even before the war they were a top league team and as a club they were, well, old, and they had five generations of familiies saying that one day they'd come back. Such blind faith was kind of touching.

Well under Coyle they've done it. And they've done it in the best possible way, by playing footballl and having a fantastic team spirit, by beating some of the best teams in the land and beating them fair and square. No hoofball. No John Beck-esque percentages, just pass to feet attacking football based on limited players playing as a team.

Which makes his immintent move to Bolton more mystyfing. Bolton. Hateful bunch of *******s who wrecked Southend highstreet and seafront once. Hoofball experts who only ever appear on the final game of the MOTD highlights. A team whose departure from the premier league would after several seasons would go largely unnoticed. And more importantly a team who are two points behind Burnley.

Away from home Burnley are going to get spanked. But one defeat in 10 at home backed by a vocafarous crowd in a fantastic old stadium means that the two remaining relegation places after Portsmouth will go to either a Hull team that have hardly won a match in a year, a West Ham team that'll probably be forced to sell their East End grandparents to stay afloat (gawd bless 'em) or a team whose glory years under Allardyce are well and truly behind them.

From a fan who has seen greed rob his team's chance of top league glory, don't go Owen. You keep Burnley up, Bolton will go down, you'll get bigger and better offers in the summer, they'll put a statue of you up at Turf Moor and you won't make the biggest mistake of your career. If you chase the money you lose the dream. Just ask Judas Fry.
 
That's a good rant, that. I don't agree with it, but I like the points and I'm almost certainly going to end up stealing that crack about it taking several season to notice they've gone down. However, for the sake of debate, here's a excerpt from my preview of Bolton's game tomorrow.


"It's a controversial move, but there's no doubt that it's the right one for this promising young manager. On a personal level, it means a huge wage rise without the inconvenience of relocating to another part of the country, but it's the potential for professional gains that will have attracted Coyle to the Reebok Stadium. The Scotsman has surely taken Burnley as far as any mortal can, reaching the League Cup semi-finals last season, dragging the club to the Premier League and beating Manchester United in their debut campaign. There are no rich Arabs at Turf Moor, there is no catchment area for new fans and Coyle knows that the only way for Burnley to go is down.

Is Bolton the right destination? Absolutely. Though some in the media have suggested that Coyle should wait for a bigger club, football doesn't work like that. Ask Iain Dowie, Aidy Boothroyd or Phil Brown how quickly perceptions change and how swiftly stock can drop. Believe it or not, they were all tipped for big things until relegation blotted their copybook. Coyle could stay at Burnley until the summer, but who would take him if Burnley's season ended as miserably as Hull's last year? In football, you have to go when the going is good.

Bolton are not the biggest club in the Premier League, but they are a number of rungs up the ladder from Burnley. There is money to spend, there is a healthy wage budget and, above all, there is the potential to do more than just survive. Phil Gartside is desperate for someone to add flair and style to the sturdy foundations set down by Sam Allardyce and Coyle is just the man for the job."
 
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I doubt you'll be adding many Burnley people to your fan club with that piece Slip, i'm not actually bothered enough about the situation to form an opinion on this, but i do hope both clubs finish above Scum Ham, about that there is no doubt
 
I doubt you'll be adding many Burnley people to your fan club with that piece Slip, i'm not actually bothered enough about the situation to form an opinion on this, but i do hope both clubs finish above Scum Ham, about that there is no doubt

There's no disrespect intended to Burnley, they're a magnificent club, but it's all about potential and Bolton, as Premier League mainstays, have got much more of it.

Obviously though, I hope that they, and everyone else, finish above West Ham.
 
I got stuck in traffic on the way up to Burnley on New Year's Eve a few years back (We lost 5-1 and had Bress and Grids sent off), only arriving at the ground just before half time. They wouldn't let us in due to some 'elf and safety' BS. Combine that with their evil scumbag fans, and I hope they rot in hell.
 
Don't want to urinate on your laptop whilst it is on fire slip, but pretty sure Phil Brown has been relegated with Hull as yet, though hopefully it will come.
 
Don't want to urinate on your laptop whilst it is on fire slip, but pretty sure Phil Brown has been relegated with Hull as yet, though hopefully it will come.

It's not been a good day, has it? In terms of punditry, I'm running at 'Mark Lawrenson' level at the moment.
 
It's a tricky one. There's a similar blog by Phil McNulty on the BBC website saying he should wait as he's destined for greater things than Bolton, but as Slipperduke says, public opinion in football changes very quickly and you have to take these opportunites when you can, although Celtic were after him in the summer so I don't see why he wants to go to Bolton but not Celtic. What if he doesn't keep Burnley up? He'll be back in the Championship and his CV will be blotted (much like our own manager) by a relegation. Saying that, if he goes to Bolton and tries to impose his more attractive style of football it could take a while for the players to adjust and they could well end up going down. But he does have a connection to the club and has just told Burnley he wants to leave.
 
There's no disrespect intended to Burnley, they're a magnificent club, but it's all about potential and Bolton, as Premier League mainstays, have got much more of it.
QUOTE]

You really think so Slip? If Bolton get relegated (and if they don't then its more down to the financial ineptitude of others that on merit) then I can't see them bouncing back. The Championship is full of the corpses of ex-prem league teams desperate for the pay-check but straddled with overpaid average footballers and no cash to spend and Bolton will be no different.

It look like Coyne is joining them. If he does I hope that whoever takes over at Burnley keeps them playing good football ans that they keep embarrassing the likes of Arsenal, Man Utd and Villa because its good for football.
 
It look like Coyne is joining them. If he does I hope that whoever takes over at Burnley keeps them playing good football ans that they keep embarrassing the likes of Arsenal, Man Utd and Villa because its good for football.

I liked the way that Burnley have played during the season so far. People had written them off before the season had started, but they have showed that they mean business and fair play to them. The really need to sort their defense out when playing away, they may need to starting winning ugly when away from home before playing the kind of football that they play at home.
 
As Burnley were my old dad's team I've got a bit of a soft spot for them, and I hope they stay up. Certainly at Turf Moor they can be a match for anyone, but any team than get ******* by 5 by a very poor Wet Spam team must fear for their future survival.

Coyle apparently is on gardening leave, so it's a matter of time before he takes over at the Reebok.
 
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