Abdoulaye Meite
11 things you (probably don’t) need to know about West Brom and Bolton
Saturday, March 21st, 2009 | Abdoulaye Meite, BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Kevin Davies, Mark Davies | No Comments
Image via Wikipedia
Your guide to all the predictions and Mystic Meggery ahead of Bolton’s trip to West Brom this afternoon
Reasons to be cheerful
1. Our chances of winning this game are better than 50/50… because under Gary Megson we have only lost 49 per cent of our matches.
2. Megson should get a good reception from the fans… the West Brom fans that is. Tony Mowbray certainly wants him to get a good welcome and Jonathan Greening has been having sleepless nights over it too, but Megson himself is not so optimistic about what the atmosphere will be like.
9 random things I’ve learnt from blogging about Bolton Wanderers
Friday, October 31st, 2008 | Abdoulaye Meite, BWFC People, Danny Guthrie, Gary Megson, Phil Gartside, Sam Allardyce | 2 Comments
Featuring prostitutes, Danny Guthrie’s tattoo and Gary Megson’s email address…
With the Whites languishing in the bottom two of the Premier League, I thought now might be an opportune time to reflect on some of the more lighthearted things I’ve learnt from three months of blogging about Bolton Wanderers:
Media matters for Bolton Wanderers
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 | Abdoulaye Meite, BWFC People, Blerim Dzemaili, Gary Megson, Gretar Steinsson, Mustapha Riga | 2 Comments
When will The Bolton News start holding Gary Megson to account?
There’s a website called Media Matters for America whose mission is to hold the US media to account when they fail to report the full story.
It’s a very left wing website and at the moment they’re pretty much obsessed with highlighting stories, on both the TV and in the press, where Presidential candidate John McCain’s criticisms of his rival Barack Obama are reported without the necessary investigation in to how true they are.
I’m beginning to wonder whether Bolton Wanderers fans need a similar watchdog for The Bolton News, who have barely printed a bad word about Gary Megson so far this season, despite widespread unrest amongst supporters.
At the moment the mainstream media couldn’t give a toss about either Bolton Wanderers or Gary Megson. They’re far too preoccupied with the pantomimes unfolding at Newcastle, Manchester City and Tottenham. So it should fall to The Bolton News to hold Megson to account.
And yet, day after day, they continue to print Megson’s words with little attempt to highlight the inconsistencies and hypocrisies. Today they reported that Bolton have been denied six points by bad refereeing decisions since the start of last season (the source being a website that appears to be just as susceptible to human error as any referee).
When will The Bolton News print an in-depth analysis of the number of points the Wanderers have lost in the last 12 months as a result of Megson’s poor decisions and mistakes? It’s a lot more than Rob Styles or any other referee has cost us that’s for sure.
Here are some more examples of The Bolton News failing to hold Gary Megson to account in recent weeks:
- Gary Megson was lost for words after Abdoulaye Meite’s tantrum at Old Trafford last season… how about asking him why he’s fallen out with so many players throughout his managerial career, or about recent rumours of a dressing room bust-up after the Fulham game?
- Various articles about Megson’s fury at Rob Styles, including this one, this one and this one here… what about quizzing Megson about his negative team selection, especially as he’d been in The Bolton News a week earlier claiming he wanted to put Manchester United on the back foot and was ready to give Mustapha Riga his first start?
- We’re making progress says Megson… no mention of the fact that we’re just one point better off now than we were this time last year, despite Megson’s repeated criticism of how bad things were when he took over.
- Squad size is a worry for Megson… no mention of the fact that Megson failed to find a replacement for Blerim Dzemaili after he sent him out on loan on transfer deadline day.
And it’s not just Megson who gets an easy ride…
- Gretar Steinsson believes that but for 15 minutes against Arsenal and a short spell against United, the Wanderers would have got something from both those games… no attempt to point out that football is a game that lasts 90 minutes and that we were completely outplayed in those spells that Steinsson mentions.
Media matters and The Bolton News should matter to Bolton Wanderers fans, but it seems like it’s increasingly becoming little more than a mouthpiece for the official party line of the club.
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What’s going on with Ricardo Vaz Te?
Thursday, September 4th, 2008 | Abdoulaye Meite, BWFC People, Ebi Smolarek, Ricardo Vaz Te | 3 Comments
Confusion reigns over whether the Portuguese striker is still a Bolton Wanderers player or not…
Is Ricardo Vaz Te still a Bolton Wanderers player? No-one seems quite sure.
When the Wanderers signed Ebi Smolarek on loan from Racing Santander last weekend, initial reports suggested that Vaz Te had gone in the opposite direction (this report said it, and this one, and this one here).
So many fans were surprised to see the Portuguese front man’s name on the substitutes list for the West Brom game. Even now, four or five days on, many fans still seem unsure of the situation with Vaz Te.
So what exactly is going on?
There was no mention of Vaz Te in the official club website’s report of the Smolarek deal, and Vaz Te is still listed on the club website’s squad list, but then that doesn’t mean much as Smolarek – who has been given the number 10 shirt after Abdoulaye Meite’s departure – isn’t yet listed on there either.
Vaz Te’s Wikipedia page also suggests he still plays for Bolton.
The rumour mill is now saying that Bolton offered him the loan move but he turned it down. Still, would it really hurt the club to come out and clarify the situation once and for all?
Another fine mess.
The Fans’ View: Bolton Wanderers v Northampton
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 | Abdoulaye Meite, BWFC People, Danny Shittu, Gary Cahill, Gary Megson, Gavin McCann, Heidar Helguson, Joey O'Brien, Kevin Davies, Radhi Jaidi | No Comments
The Bolton Wanderers match report you won’t read in the papers…
- Bolton’s attitude to cup ties is a disgrace. Roll on January for another humiliation in the FA Cup! Mind you, we get exactly what we deserve, given that only 7,136 fans bothered to turn up to watch.
- Gary Cahill should be fined a fortnight’s wages for getting sent off.
- Our only tactic is hit and hope. Stoke fell for it because their defence is rubbish but few other teams will.
- What happened to us taking the Cups seriously this season, Mr Megson?
- Match updates on the official BWFC website stopped after Northampton went 2-0 up within 28 minutes, which shows what they thought about the result/performance!
- The players are more worried about buying a new 86 inch Plasma telly from the Trafford Centre than wearing the white shirt.
- Danny Shittu looked like the Championship defender he is. In fact, he and Megson were more like Laurel and Hardy. Come back Abdoulaye Meite and Radhi Jaidi all is forgiven!
- The only explanation for Heidar Helguson’s inclusion in the team is that Megson was putting him in the shop window. He and Kevin Davies couldn’t score in a brothel.
- Joey O’Brien and Gavin McCann are Bolton’s version of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, only nowhere near as good.
- Still, at least ITV put us out of our misery by not bothering to show the highlights.
- Special mention to Ding Dong Doo, whose match report summed up the general lack of confidence in Gary Megson, even if he did write it 12 hours before the game finished.
Media Watch: Bolton News ignore Kevin Davies to Hull story
Friday, August 1st, 2008 | Abdoulaye Meite, BWFC People, El-Hadji Diouf, Kevin Davies | 1 Comment
Kevin Davies could leave Bolton Wanderers for Hull City… unless you read The Bolton News
This morning my inbox was dominated with news that Hull City are lining up a bid for Bolton Wanderers striker Kevin Davies. The story was on the Hull Daily Mail website, Yorkshire Post and an Irish football website called SquareFootball.
Yet there was no mention of it at all on The Bolton News website. So I gave it a couple of hours… and by 12.30pm there was still no mention of Davies by The Bolton News, who instead led their Wanderers page with a story about Chorley having a lad from Bolton in their team (who would’ve thought it?) and El-Hadji Diouf talking about his ambitions at Sunderland (he’s gone, we’re over it already).
There are two possibilities here: either The Bolton News have decided the story is nonsense, in which case I expect to see a ‘Wanderers rubbish Davies bid reports’ type story once they’ve got the relevant quote from a club insider (although they still could have reported the rumour in the meantime); or they have missed the story altogether.
If it’s the latter, could it be linked to the recent retreat from front line duties of veteran Wanderers reporter Gordon Sharrock?
:UPDATE: As you can see from the top story on my BWFC news feed on the right, the BBC reported at 3:18pm that Hull City have confirmed Bolton Wanderers have turned down a £2 million offer for Kevin Davies… still no mention on The Bolton News though.
My guess is that it will appear tomorrow once it’s been printed in the newspaper, but by then anybody who cares about this story will have already read about it on the web.
:EVEN LATER: So it appears the version of the story The Bolton News was sitting on yesterday is that the club are to offer Davies a new deal in retaliation against Hull’s offer. This story was finally added to the site at 10.10 this morning. The only problem was that the introductory paragraph displayed under the headline ‘New deal for Davo’ was the same as the one for the latest Abdoulaye Meite/West Brom story. And the link led to an ‘article not found’ page.
:LATER STILL: As of 11am the article now appears to work but the home page still shows the wrong intro…
Kevin Davies: Not to be confused with Abdoulaye Meite
10 very good reasons to sell Abdoulaye Meite
Thursday, July 31st, 2008 | Abdoulaye Meite, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Henrik Pedersen, John McGinlay, Nat Lofthouse | 1 Comment
Abdoulaye Meite not fit to lace Super John McGinlay’s boots
The Bolton News reports that the Wanderers are furious with West Brom’s latest £1.5 million bid for defender Abdoulaye Meite.
Given that Gary Megson clearly doesn’t rate the player and Meite himself proved he doesn’t want to play for the Wanderers when he refused to come out for the second half against Manchester Untied at Old Trafford last season, you’d think they would take the money and run.
From the fans’ point of view there is another very good reason to get shut of Meite. For some bizarre reason the club has given him the squad number 10 for next season (if he’s still around).
Meite's profile on bwfc.co.uk: The pic says 5 but the squad list says 10
Being something of a traditionalist, I’m of the view that defenders should be barred from wearing numbers 7 to 11. More importantly, as this thread on The Bolton News points out, to give a Man United-fearing, cowardly sore loser like Meite the shirt that was once warn by Super John McGinlay is tantamount to treason.
Mind you, the same argument could’ve been made about Henrik Pedersen, Nat Lofthouse and the number 9 shirt a few years ago… even before Henrik became a left back.
Media Watch: Wanderers fans get their voice back on Bolton News
Monday, July 21st, 2008 | Abdoulaye Meite, BWFC People | 3 Comments
The Bolton News is allowing Wanderers fans to comment on articles again
In the first of a regular series of articles about the mainstream media’s coverage of Bolton Wanderers, we bring you both good news and bad news from The Bolton News website.
First the good news… last week the paper relaunched its website with a snazzy new design. The redesign has seen the reintroduction of user comments on articles, which were disabled in May because of what digital content editor David Crookes described as “a minority of people who have insisted on spoiling our previous comment facilities.”
I spotted this change while reading Saturday’s story about Hull City’s latest bid to sign defender Abdoulaye Meite.
Now for the bad news… whilst the reintroduction of comments was welcomed by posters, the paper’s policy of only publishing excerpts from that day’s newspaper articles before inviting readers to read the “Full story in Saturday’s The Bolton News”, was less well received.
Mike Canada wrote: “I wish I could go out and get Saturday’s Bolton News but I live in Canada. Can we not get the full story now on the Internet Site? It used to be great getting all the news instead of having to wait two weeks for our friends to air mail the cuttings to us in Canada.”
The Bolton News' new website
Another blow for Whites fans is The Bolton News’ bizarre decision to remove almost all Wanderers news from its home page. On the old site you could scroll down to below the news section to find out the latest goings-on from the Reebok Stadium, but on the new site you have to click through to the Wanderers section page.
Surely the fact that the national press is so poor at covering clubs outside the big four gives The Bolton News a virtual monopoly when it comes to covering the Wanderers. On the old site the top 10 stories of the day almost always contained three or four Wanderers stories.
And yet looking at the new home page you have trouble finding any reference to the fact that the town has a Premier League football club. Instead it devotes a considerable amount of space to non-local stories about Madeleine McCann, Chelsea’s Petr Cech and the England cricket team.
If The Bolton News think that the best way to serve its readers’ needs is stories about Chelsea’s goalkeeper (we could read The Sun for that), then they are missing a big opportunity to cash in on the thousands of Wanderers fans who are disillusioned with the amount of coverage their team gets in the national press.
The campaign to get Wanderers news back on The Bolton News’ home page starts here… let them know what you think by posting your comments on their feedback page.
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