Bolton Blog Zone

Parkinson Deserves to Carry On

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Among the buzz of Sunday’s events, Ken Anderson didn’t seem very committed when asked about the future of Phil Parkinson.

“We need to reflect on what has and hasn’t happened. I will have talks with the manager in the coming weeks,” was his answer.

It would be hugely unfair if Parkinson wasn’t able to lead the team into the start of next season. Granted, we could start awfully, and no manager, or anyone in football for that matter, can forever sit on their laurels, but let’s indeed reflect on “what has and hasn’t happened.”

What has happened? Parkinson came in just under two years ago to a club that could have died, barely scraped 30 points as they finished bottom of the Championship, and won back promotion to the second tier at the first attempt. In his second season, we started badly but recovered to finish out of the bottom three. Rob Holding, Zach Clough, and Gary Madine were all sold along the way, all key players at the time.

What hasn’t happened? He still hasn’t been allowed to buy a player, and although assured the transfer embargo would be sorted not too long after arriving from Bradford, it took over a full year, or three transfer windows if you want to put it that way.

Yes, he’s made decisions at times that are hard to defend. Derik, Karl Henry, and Darren Pratley didn’t work together in midfield, Mark Little and Antonee Robinson should have both been back in the side long before Sunday, and watching us defend 1-0 leads for an eternity can be unnerving. But over the course of two seasons, with the squads he has had, he’s done well, where a lot of managers would have failed.

Having put up with a difficult situation, if investment did come in, he has earned his chance to work with looser purse strings.

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