A post by Callum McKay Smith on why we should back Gary Madine
Having previously written only two articles for Vital Bolton you are probably not familiar with me or my connection to Bolton Wanderers, so I’ll start with a little about me – I’m 23 and have been supporting Bolton since 2004. My first match watched was actually a 1-1 draw against Wimbeldon at the Reebok in 2001 but since properly supporting Bolton I have been to 5 matches (I live in the westcountry so can’t get to many). I work nights so get the time to write while working. And while I am a relatively young fan, entering ‘supporthood’ during Boltons best years, i’m certainly not dissolusioned with our current position – we have no money. I dont rate our chances of signing ALF or whichever star striker we want, but neither do I bemoan our lack of transfer activity, or the maligned and drawn out contract talks with Heskey. I read somewhere on twitter a fan saying something like ‘Surely there are better alternatives to Heskey out there that we can afford?’; and I thought – the better question is ‘Who, on similar wages to Heskey, and is a free contract, would actually want to join Bolton?’ My guess that the queue would be very short (Dobbie).
I write this on the back of the 2-1 pre-season victory over Port Vale, and while we were obviously lucky to come away from the game with a victory, we saw another two goals from Gary Madine. The man who had, and probably still does have his fair share of doubters, has banged in 4 goals in 6 games so far and is proving himself to be a really good accquisition. He reminds me a little bit of Daryl Murphy – a big burly striker who can finish well – and who saw it coming that Murphy would score 27 goals last season? I think in this world of watching Aguero and Rooney et al in the premier league, we lose our vision in seeing the quality of lower league players. Lukas Juke, the afforementioned Daryl Murphy, Chris Martin are all strikers who, at one stage would have produced similar looks of neutrality or nothingness, but have since proven that at the right club they can score bags of goals, heck, even Cameron Jerome scored 21 goals last season! So why not Gary Madine? For me, I hope we don’t loan another ALF or Hooper, I’d rather give our big Gary Madine his fair shot.
As for the rest of the team, and following recent happenings, I’m quite glad to see Robert Hall go – I agree that he has something about him, but if the reports are to be believed, he is costing us a lot more money to play him than its worth. Besides with his wages we may finally be able to tie down Heskey, Dobbie and Wilson, and god knows how badly we need a ‘specialist’ Right Back.
While I’m here I’ll also add in my preferred starting XI and formation. I’d go with a 5-3-2 similar to how Lennon lined us up last season:
Amos
Derik, Dervite, Ream
Wilson, Moxey
Pratley, Vela
Davies
Clough, Madine
Subs:
Fitzimons
Wheater
Feeney
Twardzik
Spearing
Clayton
Dobbi
Thanks for reading.
-BY CALLUM MCKAY-SMITH