Rebuilding Bolton - The Long Haul

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The days of Okocha terrorising many an English team is well over... since then the spiral out of control has been the story on everyone's lips.

The Bolton story was nearly over in the summer with a very large bill sitting on the owners doorsteps and a dwindling timeframe left the owners with no choice to declare bankruptcy and enter administration.

Luckily the aforementioned has worked and the team have been able to regroup with a new look squad in the hope of working a way to get the team back to the dreamland that is English's top flight. So who is going to take on the impossible task of creating a squad the fans can be proud of? Someone who will have no resources available and cost little in wage to keep the team in business.


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Why not an untested 21yo looking to prove a point after a horrific injury cost him his career.

The Rebuild has begun and here is where the story begins.........................................

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Its clear from day 1 that the board see the 12 point deduction as a very dangerous proposition going forward and hope to see us stay up or go down swinging.

With no money available and only a few thousand available for wages the task will be a tough one but something that seems doable, its time to get the backroom staff needed for the rebuild and get rid of any deadwood to leave us space to rebuild the team.​

PRE SEASON ROUND-UP

After a very in-depth look at the existing squad and the resources available. It was clear that we had to reduce the wage bill and get rid of a big name to free up wages to create a more well rounded team that could get used to my 2 preferred ways of playing and be best suited for the challenge ahead.

The decision was made to let go of Will Buckley due to the very high wages and us safe in the knowledge that he will be hot property and someone would snap him up to give us the cash to move forward. Along with putting Mellis on loan to further free up another 2k in wages left us in a great position to really bulk out the squad with some great loans and some possible cheap youngsters to grow in the youth squad.

TRANSFER SIGNINGS

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First up on the agenda was taking on someone who could compete for the Left Wing Back position but also give us some real strength and back up on the opposite side which this signing well and truly does. A very good loan that will gives us the squad depth we needed for the position.

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A very good youngster who gives us a nice addition for DM and CM that should allow us to utilise this player going forward with also allowing Ali Crawford to focus on playing further up the field.

20yo who we could also nurture and hopefully continue to get on loan for years to come as we both progress in ability.

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The best piece of business of the window is the very cheap loan of Aaron Rowe, who quickly comes on board for a small loan wage to battle for a starting position on the right wing and with the ability to quickly improve during the season it was a no brainer.

Along with the saving of taking him on board instead of Buckley saves us over 3k in wages which is outrageous considering Buckley is 30yo and only going to slowly degrade.

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So here is the most obvious business we had to complete during the off season due to our best striker being a ripe age of 36. This signing will allow us to have an adequate partner and back up depending on 1 or 2 striker set up. A very good rounded striker for 18 years old who should be able to score plenty of goals in League 1 for us.

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Finally is a winger who is well rounded and able to play on both wings which was a massive reason for taking him on board. He will be able to compete for a starting positon on both sides of the pitch and gives us that raw ability that will torment defenders and allow our strikers to get on the end of the ball to complete the move off.


Overall this has been a great window where we have been able to get rid of a 30yo off the wage bill and take on board some great loan signing to get us through the season before we build onto bigger things once we can start on an even playing field with the rest of the league.

Along with this, a very in-depth look at the youth players in the teams allows for big hope of many of these players becoming regular starters in the near future or allowing us to receive a very hefty fee due to the potential of many of these stand out players.

PRE SEASON RESULTS

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After a very tough start to pre-season the squad have begun working together and have produced some great performances for us to build on going forward. Especially looking forward to Ethan Hamilton playing in the middle of the park and allowing our Attacking Midfielder to really showcase the ability we have in that position with 3 players all battling to start the season as number 1 choice.


Very optimistic of the season ahead, the hard work starts now.....​

Season Underway.......

After some great work during the week, we went into the first week confident of building on an impressive end to the pre-season friendlies with an opening day.

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I have had a great few weeks with the squad that clearly makes me buoyant of what we can achieve in a season where we sit 12 points below anyone before the season gets underway.

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Well what more can I say, the boys played very well today, dominating the game in possession and in all a very impressive performance. Sadly, its not a real gauge of our ability due to the opponents rather weak team.

Edmondson was very impressive on debut and really ran the line well, very excited to see what he can do going forward.

Ali Crawford managed to turn a performance out of the top drawer and looks like he is going to cement the attacking midfield role as his own.


DOES ANYONE WANT A SMALL RUN DOWN OF OUR TOP YOUTH PROSPECTS,.....................​

AUGUST UPDATES

What a month this has been for the club so far, a very impressive beginning to the league has maybe slowed down near the end of the month. However with only needing to fight against relegation it looks like we are set to well and truly smash past the target if the first month is anything to go by.

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A great start to the journey was important and it is clear that the system that we have worked on, really gets the best out of the squad we have at our disposal.

A 3rd round tie with Arsenal at home awaits the squad which will be a great boost to the cash flow and a real challenge for the squad.

Our front 4 have really began well and Eddie Brown is doing wonders in the cup games which I will continue to do as he has a talent that should make him our starter come next season when the hard work begins.

Leasing.com Trophy begins and it gives the club a chance to play a much younger squad to get them some much needed experience.

SEPTEMBER UPDATES

A month of some great moments and a nice cash injection into the coffers with a nice sell out crowd for the visit of Arsenal where the boys nearly pulled off an unlikely victory.

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Some very good performances and lucky escapes late in the games means we have quickly eaten into the negative points and show a nice and healthy league position.

Some very bad injuries to Emmanuel our starting right back has been an ongoing problem due to unsuitable backups and now we have lost our creative spark in Ali Crawford for 4 weeks, hopefully the cup villain Darcy can step up and make amends for his penalty miss.

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We now go onto the oncoming months in a great position and are looking to continue to climb the table, outside change of sneaking play-off if everything goes well but really we want a top half finish to build on for next season.

OCTOBER UPDATES

A very average month that could have been that so much more impressive if we could find the finishing touch in those tight games.

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We managed to go unbeaten for the month however both draws, we well and truly bossed the game limiting our opposition to nearly no attacks.

Emmanuel has managed to get back into the team after injury and very much improving our back line once again.

Darcy has came in at 18yo and really ran the show in the attacking midfield role which shows me we have someone who can take us through the leagues as we progress.

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Now we have slowly moved up the table but the gap remains to the playoffs and we need to keep pushing to see what is really possible.

The real main thing is the ability our youth players have that is clearly going to land us in good stead going forward.

NOVEMBER UPDATES

Literally can't believe what is happening on this journey already, the team are performing way above my expectations and really anything can happen this season, however what we need to happen is maybe for us to miss out on promotion to ensure we can build a better team as it wouldn't be a good sight to see us in the Championship when a lot of our better players are currently here on loan.

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A very solid month in all respects apart from a very poor FA Cup game. The team are clicking together and that is with some key players falling victim of some very long injuries.

As our forever starter Jason Lowe and Scott Wright face a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

The whole team are on year contracts, which has left me with some very big questions without enough answers. A lot of older players will leave and free up wage bill but im unsure what I will be able to do with it for next season.

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The great from leaves us within touching distance of the playoffs and a really big outside chance of automatic promotion.

It is clear that the team are a really good fit for the league but the nerves are setting in that we may soon be higher than we want and face a real question of playing championship football next season without being nowhere near good enough.

Whats peoples thoughts, the Championship would slaughter us, do I play as I am and just go from there. Do I go from promotion even tho we will be outplayed and outclassed in the league above.

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An incredible start to the season. And those signings surely helped with that.

2020-04-19 16:07#268833 Eoin97 : An incredible start to the season. And those signings surely helped with that.

Only sad part is that they are loans and I will most likely lose these players. Long summer coming for the team and a big rebuild needed.

END OF SEASON ROUND-UP

Well what a first season with Bolton, ultimately falling short of Playoffs when it was possible going into last game of the season.

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The one big thing to take out of the season is that we would have been straight up if not for the 12 point deduction.

The club is in a very poor financial position that needs improving quickly.

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When Ali Crawford spent a few months out of action, I think this shows how important this player will be going forward for the club! Managed to tie down a few loans for the players that we already had with us which is great.

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Some very weird expectations going forward. Will update once squad has been trimmed and sorted. Hopefully we have a team ready to strike the ground running.

TRANSFER WINDOW UPDATE

WOW! What a window, the chairwomen has decided to decimate the squad and wage budget.

So the board reduce the wage budget by 30k leaving us 30k over on wages, luckily I had big players leaving on free due to wages so that reduced it.

So on the face of it we have lost 5 starting players that were our own players, some for cash and some on the free. Then another 3 starters left us due to loans expiring.

All this adds up to a very hard transfer window.

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This just shows the amount of money we had to raise to balance the books. 2 very promising goalies and our best youngster left without me having a say in any of the transfers due to the board needing the money in.

OUTS

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Our best player of the the previous season sold without consent to free up money. What a loss he will be considering the amount of money we could have got in a few years time.

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Then our best young goalie is sold under my nose once again, luckily we have a few good looking youngsters but its sad times to be a Bolton fan at this current moment in time.

INS

So we have a lot of ins, I will show you the stand out ones, as some of these players are merely for backup to the main squad and will only be used when needed.

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We managed to get this player before all went **** up and secured him many months back, this player will slot seamlessly into the starting squad. We have lost our midfield of last year and our captain, hopefully he can fill the gap.

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A player maybe on the decline but this was the most important signature due to having no left back due to our old player leaving when his loan finished. He should be fine for the time being until our youngsters improve enough to start games.

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This was a no brainer, someone who can play infront of our defense and add that extra protection while paying no wages to take him on board. He will work well with our new addition in midfield aswell.

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The last midfielder that will come straight into th starting 11. What we have managed to do albeit from loans is actually improve our midfield with these loans which will hopefully give us a good spine to work with.

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We had to take in a new winger after losing 2 wingers after they moved back to parent squad. He will be able to play on the wing when we switch system which will allow us a 2nd dimension going forward.

We have also picked up 2 very young back ups on loan to fill the gap in center half just incase of an injury crisis.

Ryan Edmundson who we had on loan last season is still with us however has just picked up an injury for 4 months which we are looking to bring in another loan to add to our striking options.

We are certainly a weaker squad but we need to hope that we can fight hard and work towards the play-offs to reach our goal from the board.​

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Last Minute loan signing by the squad that should really help on the goalscoring front! Used wages freed up by Crawford to pick him up

A very tough pill to swallow seeing 5 of your starting players leave and the crucial loans, but you have this season to rebuild, and you have made some terrific signings, particularly Diego Contento. He should shred it at that level, the former Bayern Munich wing back.

2020-04-20 18:17#268888 Eoin97 : A very tough pill to swallow seeing 5 of your starting players leave and the crucial loans, but you have this season to rebuild, and you have made some terrific signings, particularly Diego Contento. He should shred it at that level, the former Bayern Munich wing back.

Yeah hard work ahead but seems the signing should be up to the trick