Tom Jenkins discusses who should stay or go to give Bolton the best chances of surviving this season…
The latest depressing topic to loom over Bolton Wanderers, despite that win 107 days in the making trying its best to give us some hope, is the fact that we could be forced to sell up this month to survive. What makes this even worse, in my view, is that the only thing I can see improving for Bolton is our on pitch performances since the sale of the club appears to have run aground. Therefore it is ridiculous that we are planning to relegate ourselves by losing the players who can turn this around. It may appear to be necessary but if this is how we plan to solve our problems we might as well go into administration right away.
However, as the title suggests, January can be survived if the powers that be act sensibly and don`t go offering out every decent player we own in a panic. Terry Robinson, the former Director of Football at Leicester, is the man believed to be responsible for the dealings this month and the focus in terms of outgoing players should be on those with high salaries. Though this opinion may prove unpopular among Bolton fans, Mark Davies is one I would ship out for certain. I don`t think he is a bad player at all but I believe that we could cope easily without him and he would have no shortage of suitors. He`s a luxury for me and this has been proved considering his sporadic performances this year, even with a clean bill of health.
There are others like Dean Moxey and David Wheater who fall into the ‘high earner` category but I think it is clear we cannot do without them. In a defence that has had little to no consistency in terms of team selection or performances these two have stood out and we will need their desire and commitment if we are to stay up. In fact, I believe our defence will prove to be our strongest asset in the months to come. Whether or not they are in favour or not, we have lots of cover in every position and the back four who started against Blackburn look both settled and, whisper it, quite solid. This has to remain the case by the end of January.
Fans of the club have, once again, fallen out of love with Darren Pratley and would put him down as one to cut loose. Again I disagree. I think he does more than either Mark Davies or Neil Danns because he is a scrapper. We need that. For moments of quality and skill we have both Clough and Vela. In Pratley, and even Jay Spearing, we have two players who give everything: a quality that cannot be underestimated. That is of course assuming we have our two young stars after Deadline Day but I think their relatively low wages will reduce any pressure to sell.
Finally, I don`t need to remind anybody about the ridiculous amount of deadwood floating about Euxton at the moment. The Medo saga has no end in sight. Stephen Dobbie, Emile Heskey and even Shola Ameobi are hanging around producing nothing on the pitch but taking valuable wages. I`m no financier but it must surely cost less to just release them instead of paying them to do nothing because nobody will sign them. For me, these players are who Messrs Birch and Robinson should look at first when trying to make cuts, not the players who are the future of this club. I still, despite everything, believe things can get better. It will take some real balls in the Boardroom but this hellish month can still be endured.