It`s that time of the year again. That time when we start the season terribly. Here`s what`s going to happen
It`s that time of the year again. That time when we start the season terribly. Here`s what`s going to happen.
It`s October 24th, Neil Lennon`s Bolton Wanderers have been struggling at the foot of the table. Despite his failures this season, Lennon is offered a job at a bigger team due to his brief success last year and triumphs with Celtic. Lennon leaves.
Bolton hire Phil Brown as their new manager. Well isn`t this exciting? Former Bolton player and assistant manager returning home to help out his team in disarray.
Brown makes an immediate impact just like his predecessor Lennon and by January, Bolton find themselves up to the giddy heights of 19th in the Championship. Hull City come in with a 2.5 million pound bid for Josh Vela who has had a reasonable season for Bolton hence his slightly cut price and he leaves with Brown`s blessings. As a result, Bolton are able to cash in on Ben Watson on loan from Premier League Watford as well as Kyle Lafferty on loan from Norwich.
Both prove to be successes at Bolton who climb up to 13th in the table momentarily, as some wonder whether Brown might be able to push for a play-off space.
However, a few Liam Feeney taken corners later, fans return to the reality that they should be content with Championship survival and eventually Bolton finish in 19th place.
Some could argue that following their disastrous first few months of the season, this was somewhat of a feat and that we should expect a comfortable to half finish from Brown`s Bolton Wanderers side.
However, the problem arises when Lafferty and Watson return to their parent clubs in the summer and Brown has to go about building his squad. What can he do? Well, he doesn`t have any money to spend- all he had was money for a couple of loans as a short term fix following Vela`s sale.
Brown struggles all summer, and after having to sell defender, Derik Osede on for 1 million and youngster Conor Wilkinson to Barnsley for 90 thousand, he can afford to sign two players. He choses Tammy Abraham on loan from Chelsea as well as veteran midfielder, Matt Taylor.
Unfortunately, Abraham struggles to adapt to senior football, while Taylor picks up an injury during pre-season. Meanwhile, David Wheater picks up another injury and the only senior centre back available is Dorian Dervite.
Given their lack of squad depth and general quality, Bolton continue to struggle until October, when Brown is sacked. Voldemort (aka. Michael Appleton) is appointed as Bolton`s new manager, having left Oxford United to take up the position.
The cycle repeats and the only way to fund the constant sacking of managers is buy selling more young players and property owned by the club.