Gavin McCann
Is This the Real Reason Why Bolton Wanderers are so Bad?
Monday, October 31st, 2011 | BWFC People, Gavin McCann, Mike Whitlow, Owen Coyle, Phil Gartside | 3 Comments
Harrison - Blowing the whistle.
Bolton Chairman Phil Gartside may have some explaining to do
Ten games gone, over a quarter of a season, and Bolton Wanderers languish next to the bottom of the Premier League table with a meagre six points, having taken last season’s wretched run of form into the new campaign.
Manager Owen Coyle has taken most of the blame, with some focus placed on his summer signings. None of them have excelled. Given the cash limitations, that isn’t surprising. The latest accounts show a debt in excess of £110 million.
But there is another factor that should be considered – and that is the conduct of Bolton Wanderers in the transfer market. In short, there are agents who will not deal with the club, thus limiting the players that can be signed. Manny Road spoke to two of them last week.
One is Peter Harrison, who has been doing the rounds recently, as he attempts to drum up publicity for an upcoming book and documentary. Harrison has been inactive in football for around eighteen months, but was asked if he would put a player into Bolton.
“If I was still doing it, I wouldn’t put a player in,” he replied. That statement might seem surprising given that the man has previously represented Jussi Jaaskelainen, Ali Al-Habsi, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Mike Whitlow amongst others, but he isn’t alone in that view.
Tony McGill was Gavin McCann’s agent prior to the midfielder signing for the Whites in 2007. Does he still deal with Bolton?
The Badger : A value signing, but at what cost?
“Do I bollocks. No chance. I wouldn’t go anywhere near them. I will never, ever do any deals with Bolton Wanderers while Gartside’s there,” he said.
The day before the transfer was to be finalised, McCann rang McGill, informing him that another agent was doing the deal. It went ahead with agency SEM pocketing £300,000 for providing services which have never been determined.
McGill sued McCann, with the former Aston Villa man settling out of court, but his complaint to the FA was not acted upon.
Harrison is known primarily to Bolton fans because of his involvement with the BBC’s Panorama programme in 2006, in which he appeared to suggest that former manager Sam Allardyce could be induced into accepting a bung. He is scathing about the investigation, which followed him for six months.
“The only thing they got out of me was when we were sitting like this at the hotel having a coffee. He [the under cover reporter] says ‘if you were going to bung Sam, how would you do it?’
“I say’s. ‘You can’t do it, but if I was going to do it, I’d offer him it, he’s got that much money he’d say “no, look after Craig” and I’d give him it. But you can’t do it.’
“So in the programme, the narrator’s talking, and they cut the front off and I say I’ll do that with Sam, and they cut the end off. That’s the only thing they had on me, but Sam turned against us, he blames us for not getting the England job.”
The BBC’s investigation led to the Quest enquiry, led by Lord Stevens. Seventeen transfers were highlighted in the final report, four of which involved Bolton. One of those took Blessing Kaku to the Reebok in 2004.
Rachel Anderson, Kaku’s agent, contacted Quest, claiming that she had been frozen out of the deal.
Kaku played just 133 minutes for Bolton
“Kaku signed an exclusive representation agreement with me, effective from June 1, 2004, but after he played a trial match for Bolton in the August, he suddenly went out of contact. The club knew I was the player’s agent but I was cut out of the deal. The FA failed to act despite my contract being lodged with them,” she told the Mail on Sunday in 2007.
“Blessing said he was being told that the deal would not go ahead if he continued to use me as his agent,” Anderson claims she was told, on finally getting in touch with her client.
The deal went ahead with Jamie Hart acting as agent, who according to some sources had never met Kaku, until he arrived in Bolton for a week’s trial.
Player dumps agent. Deal goes ahead with another agent. FA chooses not to act. Any of that sound familiar?
Three agents, all of them highly critical. How many more are there? Have other deals been hijacked? Were some deals stopped altogether? Does any Wanderers manager stand a chance of getting the best players available to him?
Next up: The full story of the Gavin McCann transfer and worrying times for the FA.
- Richard McCormick
10 ways Gary Megson COULD win Wanderers fans over
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Gavin McCann, Johan Elmander | 3 Comments
Katie and Peter: More annoying than Gary Megson. Pic from shimelle, some rights reserved
Katie and Peter: More annoying than Gary Megson. Pic from shimelle, some rights reserved
How Gary Megson could become more popular than Adolf Hitler
Ridiculous analogies are the latest weapon of choice for the army of Pro-Megsonites (mainly non-Wanderers), who have taken it upon themselves to criticise Bolton fans for daring to have an opinion about the manager whose wages they pay.
SquareFootball (a good site that Manny Road enjoys a good relationship with, but isn’t afraid to criticise when they get it totally wrong), suggested recently that Bolton fans wouldn’t get behind Gary Megson even if he guided us to the Champions League.
Sex, pies and videotape… but not much Bolton Wanderers
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Gavin McCann, Tony Kelly | 5 Comments
Gary Megson unveils his latest signing (Pic: vieux bandit, some rights reserved)
Let’s play spot the Wanderers… in (extremely unofficial) association with The Bolton News
The Bolton News has had a bit of a redesign recently. Nothing radical, just a few tweaks here and there and some new fonts. One thing that hasn’t changed is the lack of prominence given to the Wanderers in the site’s navigation.
Guess the Bolton Wanderers flop
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | Ariza Makukula, BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Gavin McCann, Grzegorz Rasiak, Johan Elmander, Kevin Davies | 4 Comments
As bad as it gets, surely...
News of the World blasts Gary Megson’s ‘costly mistake’
The News of the World picked its worst Premier League XI of the season on Sunday. In it was one Bolton Wanderers player. Can you guess who it was from this extract?
Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Sunderland: The fans’ view
Monday, May 11th, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Fabrice Muamba, Gary Cahill, Gary Megson, Gavin McCann, Johan Elmander | No Comments
The Bolton Wanderers match report you won’t read in the papers (or see on Match of the Day)
Here’s how the various Bolton Wanderers message boards reacted to the goalless draw with Sunderland…
Positives
- “We have now secured our place in the Premier League for the ninth successive season, which you have to say is a fantastic achievement however it has been done.”
- “Overall Gary Megson has done a good job and he deserves the chance to prove himself further next season” … “The board should back him with more money.”
Bolton Wanderers 1-1 Aston Villa: The fans’ view
Monday, April 27th, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Chris Basham, Fabrice Muamba, Gary Megson, Gavin McCann, Johan Elmander, Kevin Davies, Nicky Hunt, Tamir Cohen | No Comments
Image via Wikipedia
The Bolton Wanderers match report you won’t read in the papers (or see on Match of the Day)
Here’s what the various Bolton Wanderers message boards made of the 1-1 home draw with Aston Villa…
Portsmouth 1-0 Bolton Wanderers: The fans’ view
Monday, April 20th, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Gavin McCann, Johan Elmander, Jussi Jaaskelainen, Kevin Davies | 1 Comment
Image via Wikipedia
The Bolton Wanderers match report you won’t read in the papers (or see on Match of the Day)
Here’s what the various Bolton Wanderers message boards made of the 1-0 defeat to Portsmouth…
Positives
“Jussi Jaaskelainen was our man of the match.”
Chelsea 4-3 Bolton Wanderers: The fans’ view
Monday, April 13th, 2009 | Andy O'Brien, BWFC News, BWFC People, Chris Basham, Danny Shittu, Gary Cahill, Gary Megson, Gavin McCann, Gretar Steinsson, Johan Elmander, Kevin Davies | No Comments
The Bolton Wanderers match report you won’t read in the papers… or see on Match of the Day
Here’s what the various Bolton Wanderers discussion forums made of the 4-3 defeat at Chelsea…
13 things you (probably don’t) need to know about Chelsea and Bolton Wanderers
Saturday, April 11th, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Gavin McCann, Kevin Davies | No Comments
- Image via Wikipedia
Your guide to all the pre-match predictions and Mystic Meggery ahead of Chelsea v Bolton Wanderers
Reasons to be cheerful…
1. Only Arsenal have a better record at Stamford Bridge than Bolton in recent years… in fact we have only lost once in our last five visits to Chelsea.
2. Kevin Davies isn’t too disappointed that his rumoured January move to Chelsea never materialised. In fact, he thought it was as funny as everyone else did.
Bolton Wanderers 4-1 Middlesbrough: The fans’ view
Monday, April 6th, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Chris Basham, Danny Shittu, Ebi Smolarek, Fabrice Muamba, Gary Megson, Gavin McCann, Johan Elmander, Kevin Nolan, Ricardo Gardner | 1 Comment
The Bolton Wanderers match report you won’t read in the papers (or see on Match of the Day)
Here’s what the various Bolton Wanderers message boards made of the 4-1 thrashing of Middlesbrough on Saturday…
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