From hot Man Utd prospect to unemployment… Where did it all go wrong?
I’d like to start off by talking about how much I think our team misses Chris Eagles. Even when we were in the Premier League and he wasn’t even playing very well I felt that there was something about him that very few other players had. Sir Alex saw huge potential in him and wanted him to stay at United but Eagles was lured by the chance of working alongside the great Owen Coyle.
At Burnley, Chris Eagles was highly rated- a virtual ever present in all of his three seasons and was certainly a bright light in what was a very dim Premier League season at Turf Moor.
When he joined Bolton alongside Tyrone Mears, I was excited. How good would in form Chris Eagles on one wing with in form Chungy on the other be? However, the former drifted in and out of the team and the latter got injured.
However, after an average season in the Premier League the Hempstead born midfielder really kicked on. He was our top goalscorer from midfield, he was our top assister, almost all of our attacking play revolved around him. He scored free kicks, long shots and was a tidy finisher. The sad thing is, that was just one side of his game.
The other side involved a high-pedigree player not bothering to track back and help the defence and being selfish on the ball. A common sight was Chris Eagles standing far up the pitch, just watching the opposition score.
Seeing someone with so much talent, just waste it by not working hard really saddens me. Chris Eagles has something very special about him- a certain flair that can’t be taught. If he wants to re-kindle his career he has to realise this.
There have been countless stories of Eagles falling out with the coaching staff and whether or not that’s true, I think is irrelevant. The reason Chris Eagles’ Bolton Wanderers career to a massive turn for the worst was his own failure to realise his massive potential.
He has the mindset of a Manchester City player, signed for 30 million pounds and at times when I watched him, I felt that had things worked out differently he could still be lining up for United alongside the likes of Wayne Rooney. I’ve read stories criticising him for turning up to Burnley training in a Lamborghini and to be quite honest, a lot of the best players need a certain level of arrogance to succeed.
However, the untapped talent is what didn’t allow him to progress as well as people like Cristiano Ronaldo or Nani.
He’s spent time in a boxing gym and rumour has it that he could be signing for a Championship club soon. If this all goes through, I do hope his release from Bolton can act as a catalyst to get himself back down to Earth and work his way back up the ranks.
Chris Eagles could be a player to come back and haunt Bolton Wanderers in the future.
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