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BWFC Guest Article: New Generation?

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Nicky Crompton pops in with another analytical guest post


Nicky Crompton has written an analytical overview of the new generation of Bolton Wanderers players. Thanks Nicky…



I`m sure we can all agree that no one has really been able to recreate Bolton`s success since the Allardyce era. Some might have thought we got back there under Coyle`s regime, but then we lost 5-0 to Stoke at Wembley and haven`t quite been able to pick ourselves back up after that.

What`s interesting to look at during Allardyce`s time is the quality of the squad.
We were successful with players who weren`t necessarily all that good. We had players like the legendary Nicky Hunt. He played as a first team regular at a relatively young age. Now at 29, he plays for Accrington Stanley.

If you look at our current squad, it should be good enough to get us out of the Championship. The question is though, will it go any further and is it Premier League quality? Also, what if we don`t make the Premier League? Most of our players have played in a prestigious league elsewhere, if not the Premier League.

The reason for calling this article ‘New Generation` is that I think we have a group of players who might hang around for a while. We`ve lost long servers Gardner, Jussi and Davies. The concept of having Mears for the next 5 years may terrify some fans. However, the likes of Eagles, Spearing and Medo could all possibly become Wanderers legends. I know this is terrifically optimistic, but if they stayed at the club for a while they would be playing, thus becoming long servers, and thus becoming legends.

Taking a look at Allardyce`s squad, there were players that were successful at T`Reebok who had never been heard of before i.e. Faye. Finding and signing talent is something that Dougie is a big believer in.

Sam Allardyce was much more popular among the fans than the likes of recent manager Gary Megson. Dougie has taken numerous steps in trying to get the fan`s support. He signed Spearing. And on signing Moritz he stated that the signing was for the fans (despite him hardly playing). I`m not saying that Freedman resembles Allardyce in anyway (he`s much smaller) but I think he does share similar interests. These interests could be what could possibly bring us success in the future.

I think we should also touch upon Dawson here. Although Cahill really is post-Allardyce, I think he can be compared to Dawson. They`re both good in the air, and they score goals. Since Dougie has been a bit of a fan-pleaser, why not get him to sign Dawson. He obviously noticed the Dawson chants and I thought he reacted quite well to them. Now go sign him, Dougie!

Signing Dawson may be difficult because of Financial Fair Play Regulations. If you are not aware of them, they do two things: They make sure clubs don`t overspend and make it so Bolton fans can`t keep talking down their debt saying “Oh, don`t worry, it`s just owed to Eddie Davies.” So, we may well have to sell before we can buy.

Now, I`m not saying that under Dougie we will definitely emulate the success of Allardyce. However, I think fans can be a lot more confident about some success now.





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