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What Manny Road has been reading (and thinking) about Bolton Wanderers

• Bolton rescued Newcastle reject Basham from McDonald’s counter
• Could Bolton’s Basham be another Bostock for Spurs?
• Bolton Wanderers Player Of The Year Votes
• Bolton Wanderers academy must produce more, says Gary Megson
• Puygrenier eyes England stay
• Blerim Dzemaili: Torino Gave Me Back My Life
• Big Eck fancies Danny Shittu
• Ebi Smolarek to leave Bolton?
• Blerim Dzemaili still a Bolton Wanderers player, says club
• Gary Megson Rues Bolton’s 15 Minute Short-Circuit Against Chelsea
• James Morrison To Leave West Brom For Bolton Wanderers
• Jay-Jay Okocha: I Gave Up Bolton Captaincy After They Tried To Sell Me
• Who has been your top Trotter over the past 20 years?

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• Torino yet to make decision over Bolton’s Dzemaili
• Bolton Wanderers Offer Contract To Monaco’s Camel Meriem
• Bolton keeper has European ambitions for Wanderers
• Ricardo Gardner: Things Are Looking Up At Bolton Wanderers
• Megson insists Bolton still not safe
• Bolton skipper Davies: Mouthy Middlesbrough fired us up
• Bolton Star Bags Four in International
• Gary Megson Demands Togetherness From Bolton Wanderers
• Dzemaili Recalled by Bolton
• Davies – but not Kevin – tipped for England
• Muamba banking on extended Bolton chance
• Bolton to boost Megson transfer kitty with new shirt sponsor
• Bolton rival Sunderland for Atletico Madrid’s Maniche

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- Following on from Kevin Nolan declaring exactly how much he thinks Bolton should be spending in the January transfer window, Kevin Davies has also been laying down the law, saying he’d like three new signings thanks very much Mr Megson (since when did players get to dictate transfer policy to the clubs they play for?).

- That hasn’t stopped Gary Megson’s unwavering loyalty to his captain, which last week saw him go as far as saying Nolan can win over the Wanderers fans who dislike him (yet again Megson showing a complete  misunderstanding of how the fans think and just how deep-seated the dislike of Nolan is amongst a significant number of fans… although not me I hasten to add).

- Ali Al-Habsi signing a new contract (fair play to the club for this one, it’s the second time in six months that they’ve managed to keep a top quality keeper against the odds).

- Blerim Dzemaili getting a little upset with the Wanderers (maybe they forgot to send him a Christmas card).

- Sam Allardyce trying to rebuild Bolton Wanderers at Blackburn Rovers by signing El-Hadji Diouf and Tal Ben Haim (didn’t work at Newcastle… just ask Abdoulaye Faye and all the other back-room minions who followed him out of the Reebok).

- The FA Cup coming to Bolton… as part of a promotional tour (clearly Gary Megson and his players must have missed the visit judging by their distinct lack of Cup fever on Saturday).

And finally… a selection of songs in tribute to the legendary Dave Higson… by someone called Benny the Bear!

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- This interview with Kevin Nolan in which he follows in Gary Megson’s footsteps by lavishing praise on former Wanderers manager Sammy Lee (shame he wasn’t more supportive when Lee was his boss).

- Megson justifying rejecting loan moves from QPR and Derby for Heidar Helguson and Danny Shittu by saying: ‘We need more bodies and that has got to be done in January’ (why didn’t he apply the same logic when he got shut of Blerim Dzemaili on transfer deadline day?).

- One man who has gone out on loan is youngster Nathan Woolfe, although this Wrexham website doesn’t seem to know how to spell his name (nice pun though).

- Megson telling everyone who’ll listen how good he thinks Liverpool are (let’s hope he has something different to say in the dressing room to the players).

- Big Sam Allardyce declaring: ‘I just want a football club that has a great ambition to be successful’ (a spanner in the works for those Wanderers fans singing his name at the Everton game a couple of weeks ago).

- And finally… ahead of this afternoon’s Liverpool game a reminder of a great victory at Anfield with goals from three great Wanderers: Jay-Jay Okocha, Youri Djorkaeff and, er… Mario Jardel (remember him?)…

[youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7jVZFxUGHsE]

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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With virtually no mention of Bolton Wanderers in the various live TV and internet commentaries that now accompany transfer deadline day, it was no surprise to see the club failing to add to their summer signings by midnight.

In some ways this made sense. Gary Megson did most of his wheeling and dealing in the close season and had already strengthened further with the signing of Ebi Smolarek over the weekend.

What doesn’t make sense, though, is Megson failing to make any signings after telling The Bolton News on Sunday that his squad is too small. Apparently an £8 million bid for Portugal midfielder Maniche failed at the last minute, but if the squad is so small then why let Blerim Dzemaili join Torino on a year-long loan deal without first securing a replacement?

It seems to me that there are only two reasons to let a player go out on loan:

- To give him enough games to develop.
- To get him off the wage bill.

But surely if the squad is as threadbare as Megson claims then neither of the above can apply to Dzemaili. With so few players, surely he would get games at Bolton, in which case his presence on the wage bill would represent value for money.

Which leads me to the conclusion that either Megson is completely stupid, or his statements to The Bolton News were intended as a subtle plea to Phil Gartside to stop him getting rid of any more players.

If it’s the latter, then that raises questions about how much control Megson really has. If it’s the former, then it raises questions about whether we really want Megson to have any power at all.

Either way, it’s a rum do if you ask me. And if Dzemaili can’t even challenge Gavin McCann’s place in the team, then surely he must be useless and we should just get rid all together.

What do you think?

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