On those departing who will not be so sorely missed
There cometh a time for many a player to move on. To leave either the grim Macron where they were refused opportunities to play in their optimum position on a regular basis and move on to bigger things, or to finally be released by the capsule which had carried and nurtured the player like a baby, providing protection from the cruel outside world.
Last year we said goodbye to former Burnley players, Owen Coyle’s BFF’s, Tyrone Mears and Chris Eagles. Mears suffered a horrific injury upon arrival, but he was fit for two years after and refused to be exposed to the general public. Whether he spent his time grill-side at Nando’s or elsewhere it just didn’t look like he wanted to play. He reportedly turned down a host of loan moves which was annoying. He is definitely one whom we carried throughout his Wanderers career.
Marc Tierney is another one carried by the club, though I do have more sympathy for him as he has been injured. I don’t have any sympathy for Dougie Freedman for signing a permanently injured player, though. I read that even when match fit he had a limp.
Tom Eaves is another we can expect to say farewell to. Well, in my case not as for some reason he’s blocked Vital Bolton from Twitter. The only time I’ve ever tweeted him was to say ‘good luck at Yeovil’. I want answers Tom… Oh yeah, and Eaves seems incapable of scoring which is bad.
Giles Coke’s loan expires at the end of the season. I respect Coke’s desire to succeed at this level, however it’s clear that his skill set is not strong enough to enable him to make the steps forwards that we want to make as a club. He’s still not as bad as Trotter of Garvan, though.
It has been publicised that Adam Bogdan has been offered a new contract, though I’m not sure that second choice ‘keeper Andy Lonergan has. Lonergan has been okay for Bolton over the last three years, however I’m not sure he’ll be a name lingering long in the hearts of the Wanderers faithful. His inability to kick the ball cleanly makes me so frustrated, as does his poor command of the area. He’s a shot stopper- and a very good one at that, though, so he’ll probably have done enough to secure a Championship future- though that may not be with us.
Old man McNaughton will also be leaving at the end of the season, having joined on loan with his Cardiff buddy Joe Mason last summer. I thought he was reasonable when he joined on loan last year, though I’ve come to realise that he offers very little physically- he’s rather small and slow; it’s not as if his technical ability is particularly spectacular that it makes up for this either.