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Where Did It All Go Wrong For Marvin Sordell?

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Bolton paid a lot of money for a promising 20 year old. 25 games and 4 goals later he left the club

Signing a young Championship player is always a risk as a Premier League club. Marvin Sordell, while having shown potential at Watford, had not played very many games. Paying in excess of three million pounds for someone with no Premier League experience while we were in a precarious league position was just daft looking at it with hindsight. Let’s explore his time at Bolton and why it didn’t work out for Sordell at Bolton.

We shelled out a lot of money for Sordell and fought off stiff competition from other clubs. He had a good scoring record in the Championship. As a Bolton fan, I was excited and curious to see how he’d do.

To be perfectly honest he didn’t do much at all. He only managed a few late cameo appearances from the bench- during which I was impressed by some technical aspects of his game. One has to ask why, given that he wasn’t in Owen’s first team plans, he wasn’t loaned out to the Championship to get even more experience. What’s the point in keeping an expensive signing on the sidelines- while still paying his wages?

Bolton were relegated due to Jonathan Walters running into Bogdan- something I could write thousands of words on so I’ll stop now. The Olympic games followed shortly.

Sordell was a surprise selection in the Team GB U23’s Olympic Football Squad. Sordell impressed on the whole during his three games and Bolton fans were excited to see his impact in the Championship.

I don’t want to go into too much detail about his Championship season- it was pretty depressing. A bright, young talent was just being wasted. An addiction to Social Media was being suggested as responsible for his downfall, homesicknesses was also mentioned (this was rubbished by Sordell) and racial attacks on him didn’t help either. It just wasn’t a good season- he scored four goals one of which was a penalty that rolled so slowly underneath the opposition ‘keeper that I don’t think it reached the back of the net.

On going into the next season we were pretty pessimistic about how he’d fare. However, several impressive pre-season displays signalled that Sordell might prove us wrong.

Next thing we know he’s been loaned out to Charlton. At Charlton he had a similarly disappointing season to his previous one apart from his triumphs in the last few games- including a hat trick against Sheffield Wednesday.

He returned to Bolton and after a few months of waiting for his future to be revealed, a bid was accepted by Bolton of around 500,000 pounds from Burnley. Sordell joined the Clarets to link up with former boss Sean Dyche- under whom he flourished at Watford.

He has most things needed to be a good ‘poacher’ style striker. His finishing (on its day) is good as is his movement.

I’ve always thought that if things worked out slightly differently for him he’d be linking up with Sturridge and Welbeck for England.

While his time at Bolton was a let down, I really do hope Sordell can manage to make something of his ability. He’s been fortunate to have been given the chance to play in the Premier League after two poor seasons in the Championship. Hopefully he can grab this chance with both feet and maybe, he’ll be one to come back and haunt Bolton.

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