Kevin Davies
The Year of the Un-Coyled: Part Two
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Cahill, Kevin Davies, Owen Coyle | 2 Comments
The new season beckons. Excitement mounts. Yeah right…
Comings and Goings
The summer transfer market was slow, with attempts to offload Gary Cahill for a handsome fee meeting with failure. The desire to get rid couldn’t have been more obvious if a small ad had been placed in the classifieds.
‘For Sale : Top class international defender. Two careful owners. All offers considered.’
For sale to a good home. Or any home, in exchange of a big sack of cash.
The bid from Arsenal was derisory and caused tension between the two clubs, while ‘Arry Redknapp, true to character, made enquiries a few minutes before the end of the window. The behaviour of the interested clubs was disrespectful to Bolton and to Cahill, who it should be noted, has behaved impeccably. He will move to Chelsea later this month with the best wishes of Whites fans.
Ali Al-Habsi was sold to Wigan, Matt Taylor to West Ham and Danny Ward to Huddersfield to give Coyle some working capital. Eight new players were brought in, some on loan. None of them can be considered an unqualified success. Note the polite phrasing of that last sentence.
Pre-season was overshadowed by the broken leg sustained by Lee Chung-Yong in a friendly at Newport County. When top flight sides play such fixtures against non league opposition there’s a tacit agreement that it won’t be an eyeballs out affair. A shame that no one told Tom Miller. Or maybe they did and he’s a psychopath.
The First False Dawn
Whatever confidence there was evaporated when the fixture list for 2011-12 was published. Five of the leading clubs were to be faced early on. QPR imploded in the first game of the season giving the Wanderers an easy 4-0 triumph and a creditable loss against Manchester City took place a week after.
Then it was downhill accelerating, with feeble performances against Liverpool, Manchester United, Norwich, Arsenal and Chelsea. The worst fears had been realised. › Continue reading
It’s Official. Manchester United Fans Have Turned into Scousers
Monday, September 12th, 2011 | BWFC People, Kevin Davies, Stuart Holden | 43 Comments
Having scored more than a handsome win at Bolton over the weekend, one might think that fans of Manchester United would be in good spirits. Alas, it isn’t so.
Over the phone lines and online, there has been an uncontrolled outpouring of anguish, due to opposition striker Kevin Davies launching an evil, vicious, pre-meditated, bone-crunching, career-ending, murderous attack on Red Devils midfielder Tom Cleverley. Or as more normal observers described it, the Bolton captain committed a minor foul and conceded a free kick.
Kevin Davies. A menace to society. Apparently.
United boss Alex Ferguson kicked off the grief-fest just after the final whistle. “He may have a broken foot, it was unfortunate,” he advised, failing to explain why he ordered his player to ponce around the stadium in a ski-boot rather than send him to hospital.
Cleverley was more measured. “Don’t worry about it, I’ve seen it back, it was just an unfortunate coming together,” he told Davies in response to the latter’s phone call.
The unfettered torrent of woe that followed appeared to start in Malaysia, but supporters in United’s UK heartland in the home counties soon joined in. On Twitter, worshippers of the sourest manager in football bravely attacked Kevin Davies’s wife, Emma, whilst the ‘Kevin Davies is a Thug’ Facebook group quickly picked up members, although it is still somewhat smaller than the ‘I support Manchester United but don’t have a clue where Old Trafford is’ page.
Quick to react to the tragedy, United have applied for planning permission to build a shrine outside the Stretford End, so that the tiny minority of fans who live close by can place flowers, cards and other objects in tribute to Cleverley’s foot. Meanwhile, it is rumoured Ferguson has been granted an audience with the Queen where he will request a national day of mourning.
A routine scan has revealed that Tom Cleverley’s bones remain intact. He will return to action in around three weeks.
Stuart Holden. Joint and bone damage. Twenty-six stitches. Surgery. Out for six months. Courtesy of Jonny Evans. Any thoughts Fergie?
- Richard McCormick
The Strange and Wacky World of Mrs Kevin Davies
Sunday, July 10th, 2011 | BWFC People, Kevin Davies | 7 Comments
‘What’s up with teachers? Short days, long holidays, inset days?’
The words came from Emma Davies, wife of Bolton captain Kevin, as she tweeted on the day of the recent public sector strikes. It was an inane comment to make, perhaps revealing long held prejudices, as the cause of the dispute was not the amount of time spent in class, but the erosion of pension rights.
Unsurprisingly, given that the man who supports her works short days, has long holidays and gets paid more in a week than most teachers earn in a year, there was some disagreement. Big Em did not take kindly to it.
‘People will know it’s me anyway by all the knives in my back,’ she advised later in the week after being seen in the local coffee shop. That, and her claims that she’d been abused, were melodramatic distortions of the truth. Granted, some of the replies were a little testy, but they only sought to highlight the crass nature of what she’d written. › Continue reading
Gary Cahill to Leave – In Exchange for a Truck Load of Players
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Cahill, Kevin Davies, Richard McCormick | 2 Comments
The long running Gary-Cahill-to-leave-but-we-don’t-know-how-much-for-and-where-to continues this morning with the skunks in the press being particularly inventive.
Eboue flys, without assistance from an airline
Matt Law, in an ‘exclusive’ for the Daily Express, figures that Arsenal will offer Henri Lansbury, Carlos Vela, Armand Traore and Emmanuel Eboue as part of a deal for Bolton’s star centre back.
This will be unwelcome news for Eboue, who was involved in a spat with Kevin Davies at the Reebok in 2006 and has never quite recovered. The Ivorian international has already catered for this eventuality, obtaining a Belgian passport to make his detection more difficult. He was last seen on the M25, heading for Heathrow, with final destination unknown.
Across town at Spurs, Harry Redknapp is prepared to trade Sebastien Bassong, Robbie Keane, Jermaine Jenas and Alan Hutton according to the Daily Mail. This motley crew is worth £17 million apparently, matching Cahill’s asking price. However, if Jenas is excluded, the value of the players offered rises to £20 million.
If it’s ok with Messrs Wenger and Redknapp, we’d rather have the money, thanks.
- Richard McCormick
Follow @RMc2407
Even more Damn Lies and Stats..
Sunday, June 12th, 2011 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Kevin Davies, Premier League | 5 Comments
It’s summer. There’s nowt much to do bar make up daft transfer rumours or pick the bones from our once promising season. Since the press are doing a good enough job on the former, let’s have another stab at the latter with a look at some stats for our strikers for the season just ended.
Elmander was always just a figure of fun..
It’s a matter of record that our hapless former Swede ended the season as top scorer with 10 premier league goals followed by Big Kev and the wonderkid loanee with 8 apiece. Our underused Croatian chipped in with 4, or to put it another way, the same number as KD if you ignore penalties.
Fans of Big Kev will be quick to point out that his game is about much more than scoring goals. They’ll point out that he created a whopping 86 chances, double the next highest, that only Robbo managed more than his 915 successful passes, and that only Elmander and Chungy had more than his 5 assists.
Fans of Elmander, meanwhile, should be publicly castrated on the town hall steps, but we’ll leave that one for another day.
It’s easy enough to look down our premier league stats and pick out the ‘top performers’, but does it give a fair reflection comparing someone who started every game, like Big Kev, with someone who rarely gets a look in, like Klasnic?
In the spirit of having bugger all else to do on a Sunday afternoon in the close season, I decided to compare stats per time played. The comparison is for premier league appearances only, and for the sake of simplicity (rather than accuracy) in calculating minutes played for each player all matches are assumed to last 90 minutes. › Continue reading
What a difference a year makes….?
Monday, December 27th, 2010 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Bruce Rioch, Football Association, Gary Cahill, Gary Megson, Johan Elmander, Kevin Davies, Lee Chung-Yong, Premier League, Premiership referees | 1 Comment
I didn’t get round to replying to Josh’s thread about what a difference a year makes, so I’ll stick my thoughts here.
(incidentally, when fans discuss the golden era of Bolton Wanderers, for me our second greatest period – after the 1920′s – is 30 Dec 2009 to 8 Jan 2010)
I’ll start by saying I’m a huge fan of Owen Coyle. In my opinion, this is the best managerial appointment we have ever made. Whether we go on to have the success to justify that statement remains to be seen and depends on a whole range of factors, but for me there has never previously been an available candidate more perfect for the job. I’ve stated my reasons for this in great depth many times in the past on the old official board and others, so I won’t go over old ground.
we're all a happy bunch here...
All that said, my take on the first year under OC is that if anything the “Coyle revolution” has gone slightly slower than I expected / would have liked.
To evaluate the changes, it seems reasonable to summarise based on some key areas: our league position, the style of football, spirit / morale within the club, and mood / enthusiasm of the supporters.
League position:
A massive “pass” for OC thus far. Taking over in the bottom three and guiding us comfortably to safety last season was a solid start, but it’s our lofty heights this season that really catches the eye. It’s pretty safe to say that we would be nowhere near 6th at this stage of the season under the previous manager. I’d also say it would be unlikely that we would be anywhere near this position now if BSA had never left (or worse – returned).
However, we shouldn’t get too carried away yet. We have put ourselves in an excellent position to give us a chance of a top 8 finish, but there’s a long way to go yet. Other teams have games in hand, and our position could look a bit different after the next couple of games.
We’ve also benefited from a season where some of the fancied sides have started poorly. Nobody would have predicted at the start of the season that Liverpool, Everton AND Villa would all be outside the top 8 at this stage of the season. › Continue reading
The Spuds are Mashed at the Reebok
Sunday, November 7th, 2010 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Fabrice Muamba, Kevin Davies, Lee Chung-Yong, Martin Petrov, Matt Taylor, Stuart Holden | 2 Comments
Sometimes it’s easy being a Bolton fan. Not often mind, and such moments are usually interspersed with ones of exasperation and even despair. But that just makes the good times sweeter when they arrive.
Last week Owen Coyle’s men lost to the poorest Liverpool team in decades. That seemed a long time ago as they demolished a Spurs side who had ripped Inter Milan a new nether orifice in mid-week.
Yet in the first half, that outcome seemed unlikely. There was no lack of effort or belief against Gerrard & Co, but there was an absence of guile that proved costly. The same seemed to apply in the opening period against Tottenham.
All that changed, in a pivotal moment, just after the half-hour mark and it was down to defensive ineptitude, inadequate goal-keeping and a linesman who should have gone to Specsavers.
Fabrice Muamba, robbed a dawdling Sandro and found Matt Taylor, who fed the ball to Kevin Davies. The Wanderers captain was in an offside position, and he didn’t strike the ball that cleanly, but Heurelho Gomes, in the Tottenham net, got down to it with all the speed of someone with an arthritic hip. The home side were one up, and the complexion of the game changed for good.
'Arry's Not 'Appy
Had the visitors gone in level, Harry Redknapp would probably have stayed with his starting eleven. Instead he brought on Roman Pavlyuchenko for Wilson Palacios in an attempt to open the game up. It worked, but not in the way that ‘Arry had envisioned.
‘After we went one down, we went 4-4-2 and were as open as a barn door,’ said the man with the saggiest jowls in football, post-match. It was an accurate assessment, although he missed the words ‘and it was all my fault’ off the end of the sentence.
Ten minutes into the second half and Bolton extended their lead with the best passing movement of the game so far. Lee to Taylor to Elmander to Gretar Steinsson, who finished with the touch of a striker.
Steinsson had been expected to be busy at the other end of the pitch with Planet of the Apes extra, Gareth Bale. The Spurs winger had a quiet game, as befits a man who had been hyped into outer space by a fawning media, but he did show moments of quality in the first half. › Continue reading
Europe, here we come !
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Football Association, Kevin Davies, Lee Chung-Yong, Premier League | 2 Comments
Just how high can Bolton finish this season? While I’m not trying to get carried away by our lofty (the Lion) league position – 7th at the time of writing – and I’m sure they’ll be many more twists and turns, wins and losses, highs and lows before the season’s out, but what can we realistically expect with regards to league position come the final day?
According to Lee Chung Yong, who notched his first goal of the season against Stoke, we may have reason to check the exchange rate, get ourselves some travellers’ cheques, purchase some sun block (or thermals going off our previous visits to Belgrade and Plodiv etc) and prepare for a European tour once again.
"Ivan.... sort the sunbeds out son"
When I firsy read lee’s quotes, I thought that 20+ months of constant football had finally taken its toll on the youngster and he’d gone insane. European finish? Madness surely? Still, I suppose it was no more insane than England International (had to mention that) Kevin Davies proclaiming that a top ten finish was an achievable aim under Gary Megson’s leadership!
However, the more I read Lee’s quotes, admittedly aided by our last gasp win this weekend, the more I tend to agree with him. Ok, Europe may be too much, too soon this season, but a top ten finish should be a legitimate aim – Davies, please feel free to use this as your cue to trot out last season’s quotes to an unsuspecting journalist.
So what is the reason for this change of heart, aside from the obvious? Well, upon looking at the league table this morning, ignoring the top 5 which I think will remain the same, albeit maybe in a different order, there isn’t a lot to choose from between the remaining 15 teams. Unlike last year when Pompey looked doomed already with their off the filed problems, not to mention the small issue of losing their first seven matches, there are no teams who you can write off as relegation certainties just yet (or as close as you can get to a certainty in October). Similarly, there aren’t any teams who you think have had such a good start, they’ll be playing European football next season, unless you think that both West Brom and Bolton will be England’s representatives in the Europa League next season. › Continue reading
Bolton’s Gary Cahill Joins Stoke City
Sunday, October 17th, 2010 | BWFC People, Gary Cahill, Johan Elmander, Kevin Davies | 4 Comments
Opinions are still divided after Saturday’s game between Bolton and Stoke City at the Reebok.
Should Stoke have had a penalty? Was the sending off of Ivan Klasnic harsh?
Should the Neanderthal Stoke fans who terrorised women and children be inhumanly euthanized? Should they be joined by the Bolton chavs who mouthed off and then ran off leaving others to deal with the consequences of their actions?
Some things can be agreed on though. Kevin Davies, Johan Elmander and Gary Cahill play for Bolton, while Jermaine Pennant, Ryan Shawcross and Kenwyne Jones are in the employ of Stoke City.
Not according to the News of the World.
The quotes in italics are produced word for word from Adrian Milledge’s deliciously confused match report.
Rupert Murdoch. Worth billions. Employs numpties.
‘The 33-year old, set up by Pennant’s outswinging corner, should have doubled Bolton’s lead in first-half stoppage time but headed wide.’
That 33-year old was Kevin Davies, who was presumably trying to score from inside his own penalty area. Neat if you can manage it.
‘Cahill completely snuffed out any threat from Davies and his strike partner, the in-form Johan Elmander.’
No wonder Davo had a lean day. Johan too.
‘And with Shawcross keeping a firm hand on striker Kenwyne Jones, the goal came from a winger.’
This marking players from your own side lark seems to be catching on.
Ready for the best bit? Here you go.
‘…aside from Delap’s long throws and some teasing corners sent in by Matthew Etherington and Jermaine Pennant, Stoke played the ball on the floor.’
Maybe Mr Milledge watched the game whilst upside down. That would account for his mental disintegration.
Is Owen Coyle Any Better than Gary Megson?
Thursday, October 14th, 2010 | Abdoulaye Faye, BWFC News, BWFC People, Kevin Davies, Owen Coyle | 1 Comment
With Saturday’s game against Stoke City coming up, the mood amongst Bolton supporters is relaxed right now. Performances against Aston Villa and Manchester United were good and self belief has found its way to Owen Coyle’s men.
This time last season, Whites fans were looking forward to the inevitable sacking of Gary Megson, and as Johan Elmander’s recent comments show, the players were sick of the Ginger One’s if-it-moves- shout-at-it routine.
Mystery solved. It was Martin Samuel who ate all the pies. And probably the mash too.
The mood has also been lifted by the belated England cap awarded to Kevin Davies, which has had the added bonus of upsetting the morbidly obese West Ham supporting monkey that is the Daily Mail’s Martin Samuel.
So the question posed in the title to this article might seem a bit odd. A look at the league table shows it isn’t. Bolton sit in twelfth place with eight points and a goal difference of minus one. Or to put it another way, exactly the same position as last term after seven games. Now Coyle has the chance to move ahead on that front.
Last season’s fixture against the Potters marked a low point in terms of what happened on the pitch. Disaffected football fans have been known to voice their disapproval, but they usually wait until the half or full time whistle. The match was only 25 minutes old when the Reebok faithful started to boo.
Megson’s comments after the game demonstrated that he was beyond redemption. An interviewer asked if the second half performance been enough to send the fans home happy.
‘I don’t know, I’m not bothered,’ came the reply. When your manager morphs into Catherine Tate it’s time to go.
Games against Stoke aren’t easy. ‘Physical’, ‘dirty’ and ‘long ball’ are labels used by lazy football writers and resentful opposition fans. In truth, Tony Pulis has assembled a squad, who work hard and for each other, containing several individuals of genuine quality – former Bolton favourites Abdoulaye Faye and Eidur Gudjohnsen amongst them.
But a victory should be the aim here. Gradual improvement is the realistic objective for Owen Coyle’s Bolton. Supplanting Stoke who finished in comfortable mid-table last time round will be a valuable first step.
- Richard McCormick
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