We’re third in the league but not everybody seems to be delighted with the manager…
‘PARKINSON OUT!’
I genuinely heard that in the last few minutes of Saturday’s 0-0 draw. A scroll trough the old Twitter timeline showed a few signs of dissent too. Boring, hoofball, and so on.
People are entitled to their opinions. But it does seem incredibly knee-jerk. Ultimately, Bolton are third in the league after nine games, having lost just one. A month ago we were all revelling in the fact we made our best start in 82 years. Then came the solid transfer deadline day business. Admittedly results this month have been poor, but we theoretcally could be top of the table again come 10pm tomorrow night.
A team that was as dire as we were last season can’t be miracuolously fixed overnight. We finished with marginally more points than the Blackpool side of 2015, who went on to be relegated again.
Look at some bad Premier League teams in recent years. Aston Villa have really struggled in the Championship so far, and that hilariously bad Derby team in 2008 finished in the lower echelons of the second tier the following term.
As mentioned, the results this month have been rubbish, and Saturday’s performance which was devoid of quality, and in the later stages where we seemingly didn’t want to get a winner wasn’t great to watch.
Read this quote from David Wheater after the Bristol Rovers game though.
‘There`s no need to be fancy in this division – kick it, head it, and let Mark Davies and Zach Clough do the pretty stuff.’
Both of the players who do the pretty stuff have been injured. Zach Clough does seem to be coming back and Gary Madine’s return will reintroduce a focal point that Jamie Proctor hasn’t really provided. Hopefully Sammy Ameobi and James Henry will gel too as they play more games.
Parkinson won’t be immune to criticism on these pages. If the rot continues, I might even call for his head. But we have no right to promotion, and nine games in, sitting points off the top, any calls to do so are quite frankly, crazy.