A guest article from Nicky Crompton. Everybody likes change, right?
Change is something that happens regularly at many football clubs i.e when a club changes manager, changes sponsor, or the changing-room personnel etc?
However, at Bolton Wanderers Football club, we experienced levels of change in one season that`s extraordinary to say the least. We changed managers last season. Now, at the end of the season is when the big`uns kick in.
Our kit sponsor, 188Bet decided not to renew their contract. I was never very fond of them, so I was quite excited about the prospects of a new one. Then, they revealed QuickQuid.
It`s fair to say that nobody was very happy with the sponsorship deal, which is a reported £500,000 spread over the course of two years. However, it was announced on Twitter, by the club`s official account, that the club has pulled out of the sponsorship deal with QuickQuid. They had come to this decision after taking into account the views of the fans, who showed that they did not want to be affiliated with QuickQuid by protesting. This is a very bold move from the board, and I`m sure many supporters are proud of them for making this decision. Let`s hope fans on the more extreme side of things don`t now start protesting whenever Keith Andrews starts or something happens that they don`t like.
So, not very happy about our kit sponsor, Bolton fans hope that this new logo, promised by the club, would cheer us up. It was released today, and to be honest, I think it looks great. It`s a great representation of the 70s badge, put into a modern context. This will go onto the shirt that says FibrLec on it. However, those who were thinking about not buying a shirt because of QuickQuid, you now have no excuse. For those who don`t know, FibrLec is a technology company, which also works with Bolton University.
The new kit, released today, looks great. The new BWFC crest has a more prominent appearance than our weird ‘balloon` thing, which used to be our logo. The Lancashire Rose obviously shows our heritage as a Lancashire club. Bring it on Leeds! The red and blue trims look very good too.
There is also change happening in our match-day format. Colin McGreavy will no longer be ‘The Voice of the Reebok`. He`s been doing the job for over 10 years, and I`ve always really loved his work. We`ve also got Woody and Kleiny signed on as ‘football free-stylists`. It`s beginning to sound like the IPL. Let`s hope we don`t have competitions at half time between N`Gog and Pratley to hit a six- i.e. do one of their normal shots. In all honesty, I`m not liking the sound of our new match-days at T`Reebok. They`re beginning to sound synthetic and distracting. Woody and Kleiny are apparently also meant to entertain the players. So in the middle of play Chris Eagles is going to look to the touchline to watch Kleiny do an overhead header/bicycle kick/scissor kick- meanwhile he loses possession.
Now Dougie Freedman, so far this transfer window, has showed real signs of intent in terms of changing our team. We’ve currently brought in two youngsters and Marc Tierney.
Speaking to Norwich fans, I`ve been told that Tierney is an attacking left-back, who is very solid. However, he is very prone to injuries, so we`ll want to make sure we can keep him fit. Also on Dougie`s shopping list is Alex Baptiste, a centre-back who can also operate as a right full-back. He looks set to join in July. We`ve also been linked with Jermaine Beckford, concerning a £1 million pound deal. Thankfully, talks have stalled… Phew!
So, that`s the vast amount of change going on at BWFC