Post by andyl on Aug 16, 2015 15:37:55 GMT
I attended my first match in infancy in 1958, a year of glory, albeit nationally muted, which I was too young to appreciate. And being impressionable, the next few years of first division games against the famous teams and players of the day was of course exhilarating. But the manager /secretary was of a bygone age, the Board seemed remote- certainly nothng for me to get a handle on and looking back most of the 60s ws an era of decline. There were cup semis at Burnden, a famous cup victory against the mighty Liverpool and some fine players, Franny Lee and Eddie Hopkinson being the best. We saw Wyn Davies for a while, Freddie Hill for a while and some other good players.But the trajectory overall was of decline.
In the 70s it got rapidly worse although some bright lights emerged over a few years from the young crop of players we had, eg Paul Jones, Peter Reid, Neil Whatmore and we revived remarkably under Ian Greaves. Soemhow the aura of Nat around the club always lifted spirits. I think the decline was arrested at a point in the mid 70s and the remainder of that decade we had upward momentum culminating in promotion and hero status for Frank Worthington. We had a lot of good players, Thompson, Morgan, Dunne carefully assembled and this had led to forward momentum. But it lasted perhaps half a decade, then crash. McGovern, Normid and Divsion 4 illustrating perfectly that when momentum is lost decline can be rapid. The decline lasted about six or seven years.
Phil Neal arrived with a liong term remit for a young manager and recent international player. There were touches of class about his play but it was a slog of mediocrity and not everyone liked what he was doing. But he served quite a long time and, dating perhaps from the era of Dean Crombie, Julian Darby, incremental progress was made. We had escaped from Div 4 on the last day of a season with thanks to Robbie Savage, S****horpe and Torquay. We won the mighty Sherpa Van trophy- a great day out at Wembley that was- and pretty much from 1989 to 1994/5 it was a most exhilarating era, one of Walker, McGinlay, Rioch. Gordon Hargreaves was the Chairman. We had Gold and Silver community members, the fate of Burnden was decided and onward an upward we went. Jason McAteer captured the spirit of the era and appeared nationally on Question of Sport and advertising products- who from BWFC ever did that- unless it had been Brylcreem on a poster in Bridgeman Street or Moss st baths! And yeah, Stubbs was spoken of as an England prospect and McAteer played for Ireland. I suspect that for many current fans and commentators younger than me but even some of my contemporaries and elders that was the era that galvanised our interest and created real forward momentum. The League Cup smei finals v Swindon and the final v Liverpool were fantastic to witness and enjoy.
It was also the era of the Premier League's creation. Blackburn won it with Jack Walker's brass. Cantona lit up the national stage and football began to be with Sky the live phenomenon we now see it to be . But spectator habits were changing. All seater stadia were developing. Prices were rising and the internet age was born. There was less emphasis on communities, unions, holdays in the UK, sport in schools and politically we were entering the world of regulation, accountability, declining public service etc.etc. But BWFC moved on . 1996/7 was a glorious year, promotion by a street, a brilliant team at its peak with Scandinavian imports and some fine football. Momentum was onward and upward yet we were relegated by an opening day non-goal an suddenly financial crash. We sold Blake, Gunlauggson, Taggart, Jensen and we made ends meet. Yo yo status seemd likely but no decline was too sharp.
In came Big Sam with a ten year remit. It was tough at first. Paul Ritchie and Allan Johnston added class and then came Ipswich. Grr. Eidur and Jussi emerged and we got to semi finals. Pride returned. Big Sam globalised the Wanderers, and gave us a competitive edge with clever tactics, good use of IT and europena style fitness and health investment ahead of its time and magnificent players. We won a play off v Preston, hung on to Premier League status and then lost to Middlesbro at Cardiff. Little Bolton marched into Europe. Momentum was heady. Great days. All in all plural generations had 1989- 2008/9 approx period of forward momentum, great football to watch Hierro, Djorkaeff, Okocha, Stelios, Diouf, Anelka and almost comnplete teams, squad of international players even with two Japanese! In amongst it all Kevin Davies became our talisman for a decade and he was pretty much the prop which arrested our inevitable decline.
Crash. Other teams caught up. Eddie Davies if not as rich as Jack Walker nevertheless bought us our glory period but multi national companies and foreign investors, some successfully some disastrously, bought up clubs. Panorama, in an ill thought out programme only aired on a whim besmirched Bolton's reputation and Sam's. He had England aspirations. No chance. The FA do not appoint Clough, Redknapp, Allardyce. Could LSL take over? No. Could Gary Megson put things right- up to a point and with some luck. We beat Man Utd. We won away at Middlesbro. We had a great time in Europe again until the Wigan debacle. But with a world in financial crisis or some of it little Bolton were always vulnerable. I am now skating over some uneven ups and downs but in the context of all else I think we have been decline since about a year before Big sam left, the playing stock has been gradually eroded. We have overspent!! So we are perhaps 7-8 years into a period of decline..not wildly dissimilar to the 60s and early 70s
So here we are defeated by Burton Albion at home and our owner has pulled the plug at £180 m of debt and is funding no more expansion. Tim Ream at 1.75 is our only asset. we had a high last year at Anfield and NL had a great start whose foundation was his understanding of Chungy. But form slipped away horribly and this season has begun, admittedly against tough opposition, as goallessly and poorly as last season predicted. we are amongst the favourites for relegation.
The question is when will our decline reach its nadir? When new investors are found? Or as in the 70s when young players, Clough, Walker, Holding , mini Jussi break through and stabilise the team? with a board change? a new manager? Or with the liberation of the existing manager from the strings of accountants whom he must respond to ( and even be!)
Although we can obviously plunge further ( down through the leagues and out- check Luton, Wimbledon, Portsmouth nearly, Oxford, Cambridge, Grimsby, Tranmere) we all hope we don't. I would suggest that alignment is needed of the aspirations of ( new?) owner(s), board, manager, fans and a lot of commercial savvy. The outside context will change too. Money, TV etc, but football clings on and is one of the few arenas where community spirit and identity are celebrated. BWFC has a lot going for it. There is a cyclic nature to most clubs' trajectories. History might suggest that we are quite close now to our nadir of decline. The club owns its physical assets ( I think)- and this is good. It's not about managers (most that I've seen have been much of a muchness- some have been more tolerable than others, some have excelled briefly. some we have liked, others disliked, most have incurrred both reactions in equal or more or less equal measure.) its about money for sure but almost as significantly congruence of ambition and forward momentum. Fan income could decline and gloablly some sports eg cricket have seen rapid fan decline) We need to be moving forward within a pragmatic and sensibly managed ambition. It does not matter that we lose at Middlesbro. It matters a great deal that the overall fortunes of the club and its context are turned round! Now!
In the 70s it got rapidly worse although some bright lights emerged over a few years from the young crop of players we had, eg Paul Jones, Peter Reid, Neil Whatmore and we revived remarkably under Ian Greaves. Soemhow the aura of Nat around the club always lifted spirits. I think the decline was arrested at a point in the mid 70s and the remainder of that decade we had upward momentum culminating in promotion and hero status for Frank Worthington. We had a lot of good players, Thompson, Morgan, Dunne carefully assembled and this had led to forward momentum. But it lasted perhaps half a decade, then crash. McGovern, Normid and Divsion 4 illustrating perfectly that when momentum is lost decline can be rapid. The decline lasted about six or seven years.
Phil Neal arrived with a liong term remit for a young manager and recent international player. There were touches of class about his play but it was a slog of mediocrity and not everyone liked what he was doing. But he served quite a long time and, dating perhaps from the era of Dean Crombie, Julian Darby, incremental progress was made. We had escaped from Div 4 on the last day of a season with thanks to Robbie Savage, S****horpe and Torquay. We won the mighty Sherpa Van trophy- a great day out at Wembley that was- and pretty much from 1989 to 1994/5 it was a most exhilarating era, one of Walker, McGinlay, Rioch. Gordon Hargreaves was the Chairman. We had Gold and Silver community members, the fate of Burnden was decided and onward an upward we went. Jason McAteer captured the spirit of the era and appeared nationally on Question of Sport and advertising products- who from BWFC ever did that- unless it had been Brylcreem on a poster in Bridgeman Street or Moss st baths! And yeah, Stubbs was spoken of as an England prospect and McAteer played for Ireland. I suspect that for many current fans and commentators younger than me but even some of my contemporaries and elders that was the era that galvanised our interest and created real forward momentum. The League Cup smei finals v Swindon and the final v Liverpool were fantastic to witness and enjoy.
It was also the era of the Premier League's creation. Blackburn won it with Jack Walker's brass. Cantona lit up the national stage and football began to be with Sky the live phenomenon we now see it to be . But spectator habits were changing. All seater stadia were developing. Prices were rising and the internet age was born. There was less emphasis on communities, unions, holdays in the UK, sport in schools and politically we were entering the world of regulation, accountability, declining public service etc.etc. But BWFC moved on . 1996/7 was a glorious year, promotion by a street, a brilliant team at its peak with Scandinavian imports and some fine football. Momentum was onward and upward yet we were relegated by an opening day non-goal an suddenly financial crash. We sold Blake, Gunlauggson, Taggart, Jensen and we made ends meet. Yo yo status seemd likely but no decline was too sharp.
In came Big Sam with a ten year remit. It was tough at first. Paul Ritchie and Allan Johnston added class and then came Ipswich. Grr. Eidur and Jussi emerged and we got to semi finals. Pride returned. Big Sam globalised the Wanderers, and gave us a competitive edge with clever tactics, good use of IT and europena style fitness and health investment ahead of its time and magnificent players. We won a play off v Preston, hung on to Premier League status and then lost to Middlesbro at Cardiff. Little Bolton marched into Europe. Momentum was heady. Great days. All in all plural generations had 1989- 2008/9 approx period of forward momentum, great football to watch Hierro, Djorkaeff, Okocha, Stelios, Diouf, Anelka and almost comnplete teams, squad of international players even with two Japanese! In amongst it all Kevin Davies became our talisman for a decade and he was pretty much the prop which arrested our inevitable decline.
Crash. Other teams caught up. Eddie Davies if not as rich as Jack Walker nevertheless bought us our glory period but multi national companies and foreign investors, some successfully some disastrously, bought up clubs. Panorama, in an ill thought out programme only aired on a whim besmirched Bolton's reputation and Sam's. He had England aspirations. No chance. The FA do not appoint Clough, Redknapp, Allardyce. Could LSL take over? No. Could Gary Megson put things right- up to a point and with some luck. We beat Man Utd. We won away at Middlesbro. We had a great time in Europe again until the Wigan debacle. But with a world in financial crisis or some of it little Bolton were always vulnerable. I am now skating over some uneven ups and downs but in the context of all else I think we have been decline since about a year before Big sam left, the playing stock has been gradually eroded. We have overspent!! So we are perhaps 7-8 years into a period of decline..not wildly dissimilar to the 60s and early 70s
So here we are defeated by Burton Albion at home and our owner has pulled the plug at £180 m of debt and is funding no more expansion. Tim Ream at 1.75 is our only asset. we had a high last year at Anfield and NL had a great start whose foundation was his understanding of Chungy. But form slipped away horribly and this season has begun, admittedly against tough opposition, as goallessly and poorly as last season predicted. we are amongst the favourites for relegation.
The question is when will our decline reach its nadir? When new investors are found? Or as in the 70s when young players, Clough, Walker, Holding , mini Jussi break through and stabilise the team? with a board change? a new manager? Or with the liberation of the existing manager from the strings of accountants whom he must respond to ( and even be!)
Although we can obviously plunge further ( down through the leagues and out- check Luton, Wimbledon, Portsmouth nearly, Oxford, Cambridge, Grimsby, Tranmere) we all hope we don't. I would suggest that alignment is needed of the aspirations of ( new?) owner(s), board, manager, fans and a lot of commercial savvy. The outside context will change too. Money, TV etc, but football clings on and is one of the few arenas where community spirit and identity are celebrated. BWFC has a lot going for it. There is a cyclic nature to most clubs' trajectories. History might suggest that we are quite close now to our nadir of decline. The club owns its physical assets ( I think)- and this is good. It's not about managers (most that I've seen have been much of a muchness- some have been more tolerable than others, some have excelled briefly. some we have liked, others disliked, most have incurrred both reactions in equal or more or less equal measure.) its about money for sure but almost as significantly congruence of ambition and forward momentum. Fan income could decline and gloablly some sports eg cricket have seen rapid fan decline) We need to be moving forward within a pragmatic and sensibly managed ambition. It does not matter that we lose at Middlesbro. It matters a great deal that the overall fortunes of the club and its context are turned round! Now!
What's it all about???
