Dougie tells fans to "get real "

Great comment from greymanic under the pressure mounting from the terraces

"I have never booed the Whites, or chanted derogatory comments towards manager or players, but my patience with Mr Freedman's approach to management is wearing dangerously thin...last week he remarked in the Bolton News about the qualities of the 2 young full backs, Threlkeld and White, both of whom have shown at least as much skill and ability as some of the defenders brought in by the manager. On Saturday neither were even on the bench, despite the circumstances which led to Tim Ream, a left-sided player, being selected at right back, and a bench with no defensive cover....would Mr Freedman care to explain the logic and wisdom behind this selection, yet another snub for young players who must eventually begin to fell totally under-appreciated by their manager. We are told repeatedly that the aim is to give younger players a chance, but this meaningless mantra is repeatedly undermined by the continuing acquisition of loanees whose ability often seems no better than the youngsters whose progress becomes stifled by their presence. A rare highlight of last season was the match at the Reebok for which Ream was selected in midfield,,,...his performance was excellent, and was the basis for one of the better team displays of the season. Why this selection has not been repeated since is something only the manager can answer, but seems indicative of the manager failing to make the best use of the players at his disposal, and that is HIS responsibility. There are any number of clubs in the championship with little or no money available for team strengthening, and who would probably love to have some of the players we have...Bogdan, Lee, Spearing, Ream, Wheater, Mark Davies, Medo, Beckford, McNaughton, Mills, here surely are at least 10 players who should be more than capable performers at Championship level. Some have been unlucky with injuries, but too many players have consistently under-performed over the past 2 seasons, have not been deployed in positions which make the most of their strengths, or have simply been excluded despite performing well in previous games. If you keep telling players they are too tired, or not at the required level of fitness or maturity for selection in " My Team" then those players are likely to succumb to the self-fulfilling prophecy created by the manager's philosophy. Being one of many supporters who have witnessed the team's demise to the lowest tier of the Football League I do not need to be told to "get real", or to be assailed with unfounded reasons put forward for poor results, I simply want to see capable players playing to the best of their abilities, with some consistency. That is as "Real" as it needs to get!"

Boomer,

he should know by now that cheap tools bought from the Pound shop fall apart after their first use and anyway he got them in...

some good & amusing points there with the endless contradictions he comes up with.   one of the best has to be having the nerve to bring up our greater possession v leeds , when most weeks he has nothing to say about our much inferior possession.   spot on about his reluctance to say a performance wasn't good enough too. in fact i'm not sure he understands what performance means...any kind  of narrow margin defeat is an opportunity to wriggle & say "what if we'd have scored then etc "   irrespective of the fact that the opposition probably had twice of many close things as us..but somehow they don't seem to count.