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

The support from football fans and ordinary people in the street has been inspirational

Click the link to listen to Mark Halsey’s Exclusive  interview.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/751463426e948768/

Despite hailing from Hertfordshire, Mark Halsey has firmly established himself as one of Bolton’s favourite adopted sons. After spending 12 years playing non-league football for Cambridge City and Hertford Town he began his refereeing career in 1989 and a decade later refereed the famous 1999 Football League One Play-off Final between Gillingham and Manchester City at Wembley. The same year he was promoted to Premier League status and shortly after the FIFA List of referees. He quickly established himself as one of the most popular referees in the League.

Mark was kind enough to take time out of his schedule to speak Exclusively to Manny Road & bwfcforum’s Andi Walton. He started by asking him about his current health:

MH:      Yeah I’m feeling very good, I seem to be getting stronger with every game I do and it’s a bonus for me because I never thought I’d be back refereeing again, so every day is a cup final and it’s really great to be back and the reception I’ve received from the two games I’ve done at Rotherham and Port Vale and Oldham and Bristol Rovers, the fans have been absolutely fantastic and it’s been very emotional and overwhelming for me.

AW:      It must have been the furthest thing from your mind getting out on the football pitch when you were in the midst of your treatment but now you’ve got to that stage, it must be a real thrill.

MH:      For me to come back and, you know, I suppose…for what I’ve gone through with all my chemotherapy and my radiotherapy…I mean if you saw me at Christmas, I was nowhere near the Mark Halsey of old, you know, but I’ve worked hard and a lot of people have helped me and it’s been great.  The support I’ve received from people around the country – just ordinary football fans and ordinary people in the street.  They’ve been inspirational to me and they’ve got to really pat themselves on the back for the way they’ve helped me and it’s down to them that I’m back where I am now.

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Click the link to listen to the interview.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/751463426e948768/

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AW:      Tell us about the club Mark, how have they been helping?

MH:      Oh they’ve been fantastic. I come into remission and Adie the fitness coach and you’ve got Nick Worth in charge of the physios, they’ve been brilliant with me.  Then you’ve got the doc who’s been brilliant with me.  Owen Coyle’s been running with me and Adie’s set me running programmes to do to build my fitness back up and without the club I don’t think I’d be where I am now as well because they’ve been absolutely first class with me, first class.

AW:      Let’s go back a bit earlier in your career. You were a player before you were a ref weren’t you?

MH:      Yeah.  I was a player. I played non-league as a goal keeper down in the Ryman’s league and up until I was about 28 really then I gave up playing and sort of…well 30 I was, and gave up playing and took up refereeing.  I got one or two injuries and took up refereeing.

AW:      Do you think that’s given you an advantage as opposed to somebody…well you know, it’s a decent standard you played at.

MH:      It was yeah. It does help you playing the game. I have empathy for the game, I give players a chance, I love football, I’m a football fan and it’s all about 22 players on the field and the fans, you know, it’s not about the referee.  And I think that’s where sometimes we lose sight.  It doesn’t always mean to say that ex-players make good referees.

AW:      So how did you end up in Bolton then, because obviously we can tell from you voice that you’re not born and bred.

MH:      No born and bread in Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire and I married a Bolton lass so obviously that’s when I moved up here and here I am.

AW:      You’ve become an honorary northerner.

MH:      I’m an honorary northerner, yeah and I love being a northerner. I love being a northwester, I wouldn’t move back down south.

AW:      So you’ve talked about the club helping you with your recovery, but how did you come about getting involved with Bolton in the first place?

MH:      When I first moved up here in 2000…Sam Allardyce has been brilliant with me as well.  He was in charge of the Wanderers and I asked if I could come along and train with him and I am and I’ve been there 10 years now, going every day.  I mean the lads have been fantastic with me and over the last 9 months I’ve got to know Joey O’Brien and Sean Davis very well, although Sean’s got on my nerves, in there recovering in the gym because of the long term injuries…but we’ve passed the time away really well and we’ve had a good laugh and he’s a bit of a pain in the backside is Sean!

We’ve had good times.  It’s been great, you know…but that’s why there’s a plus point being in the gym with them two all the time.

AW:            Obviously you arrived in 2000 and that was when the club was just about sort of on the up and up wasn’t it?

MH:      In 2000 first season in the Premier League it was.

AW:      And has the club advanced since you first arrived? I imagine that you’re one of those who have been around for the longest now.

MH:      I think they’ve gone from strength to strength really. You can’t take it away from what Sam Allardyce done.  I mean he’s put the club on the map and he’s done a fantastic job.   And obviously all good things come to an end and you move on.  And we’ve had people come and go and they’ve all done well in their own way and I think now that Owen Coyle’s here.  I mean Owen Coyle…his enthusiasm is second to none.  When I first saw his training session I thought he was absolutely…his enthusiasm was fantastic and he’s got all the lads up there and playing and working for him.

AW:      I suppose you’ll be coming up against Sam now won’t you because obviously you never did while was in charge of Bolton?

MH:      No I don’t referee Sam. He’s at Blackburn and we’re right good friends so they never give me Sam’s club’s.

AW:      Right, so that’s all kind of acknowledged then by the powers-that-be, is it?

MH:      Yeah.

AW:      Who are the best Bolton players that you worked alongside then over the last 10 years Mark?

MH:            Obviously there have been some great players haven’t there? I think Jussi Jaaskelainen  and I’ve trained with Jussi and I think he’s got to be up there, one of the top players, top performers, consistently week-in week-out.  And Ivan Campo was fantastic in the midfield there.  Djorkaeff and Jay Jay Okocha – there are some great names of the past aren’t there.

AW:      I suppose those are the sort of names as well that the fans remember best, particularly those like Campo really had a connection with the fans.

MH:      Oh of course he did.  They were some good days under Sam weren’t they. You know, I think the lads now that have come in are doing well and playing for Owen and if they keep us in the Premier League, which I think they will…I don’t think there’s a problem there…and see if we can kick on and see if they can kick on next season.

AW:      So you’ve said ‘us’ – you said ‘we’ there.  Does that mean that you’re a Wanderers fan? What would you describe yourself as?

MH:      Well you know, obviously being attached to the club you do, don’t you.  But I mean obviously people know I’m a QPR fan but obviously living in Bolton and training in Bolton, you get an affection for the club because as I say, the club have been fantastic with me and, you know, it’s a family run club.  So you do tend to say we, you know what I mean?

I’ve been to most games there this season because of my illness but you do, you use that terminology don’t you?

AW:      I imagine at times that it didn’t make you feel much better with some of the performances

MH:      [laughs]

AW:      Tell us about the rest of the league then.  You talked about Wanderers players.  Any other players that you’ve jut enjoyed being on the same pitch as?

MH:      Oh I mean there’s loads.  I mean there’s some fantastic players around isn’t there?  From refereeing, you just look at the likes of Alan Shearer, Henri, David Beckham. I had the privilege of refereeing Zidane and he was got to be one of the best, you know…it’s great to be on the pitch with players like that.  And you’ve got there some great players now.  You’ve got Rooney, you’ve got John Terry, you’ve got Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, they’re absolutely fantastic players aren’t they. And it’s one everyone would want to pay to see, whether you’re support for Chelsea or support for Arsenal, cos you’ve got Fabregas who’s outstanding as well, so there’s some fantastic players.  And instead of all the supporters booing and when they come to their grounds, they should be clapping them because you don’t want them players leaving the Premiership and going playing back in Spain and Italy and things like that cos we want to be the best league in the world and we need to keep those players in the Premier league.

AW:      Yeah, there’s the sort of well-known story of Wanderers fans of when Ruud Gullit played at Burnden Park, you know, he just absolutely played us off the park but the fans just clapped him off cos they hadn’t seen a player of that standard for 20 / 30 years on the pitch there.

MH:      But that’s what it should be like every ground…life’s too short.  I know that. You just don’t know what’s round the corner.  And instead of, you know, the fans…yeah of course they get emotional don’t they, with people, so it’s just great to have all these great players gracing our football pitches.

AW:      That brings me onto how you deal with the fans’ reaction to you.  We all know some of the choice language that fans can use about refs if things don’t go the right way.  How hard is it when the whole ground – they question your parentage or whatever it might be?

MH:      [laughs] It’s emotional.  People get emotional.  Football’s emotional.  And I mean 9 times out of 10 you don’t hear it because you’re concentrating and focussing on what you’re doing, so you don’t really pay any attention to it to be honest.

AW:      Do you understand it though?  Say there’s the FA Cup semi final over the weekend and John Terry’s tackle on James Milner has come in for a bit of scrutiny and then there was the penalty in that game as well.  Howard Webb doing that game and obviously someone that you know well.  But can you understand the frustration of the Villa fans there for instance?

MH:      Well obviously I can’t comment.  I honestly haven’t seen any of the incidents, obviously because I was refereeing my game at Oldham, so I’ve not seen.  And I was at Manchester City so I can’t really comment on that because I’ve not seen any of it.

AW:      Well speaking in general, you can understand how…because you know, fans spend a lot of money.  They travel to Wembley for instance in that case and you know, we as Wanderers fans have had loads of decisions, as of course all clubs have over the years, and you do remember them.

MH:      Yeah, it’s just…as I say, these things happen don’t they?  As I say it’s very difficult for referees.  They get a split second, you know, and so it’s very difficult for referees to referee at the top level.  As I said, they get a split second whereas you get all these replays and then you can make your mind up afterwards after watching it two or three times can’t you?  If you look at Fabio Capello, he said the English league’s got the best referees in the world.

But it’s just one of those things.  We all make mistakes.  I make mistakes.  It’s just one of those things.

AW:      Would you appreciate some help from cameras though Mark?

MH:            Obviously that’s not gonna happen because FIFA have said no so that’s the end of the matter so there’s no point, no matter what I say.  It can’t be used and that’s it.  I think we can make good use of them but obviously we cannot…

AW:      What’s the best match you’ve ever reffed at?  The City Gillingham playoff final, I know you did that.  That was an extraordinary match wasn’t it?

MH:      Oh it was fantastic.  Every game I referee is good.  You know, I treat every game the same.  You know, I just love refereeing.  I just love football and I treat every game the same, whether it be at Rotherham, Morecambe, Accrington or wherever it be…at Goodison Park, I treat every game the same.

AW:      You’ve done a league cup final, a charity shield.  Would the FA Cup Final be the dream?

MH:      Oh yeah it would be. I mean with my illness and obviously, you know, being out all season, there’s that carrot there and it would be great if I could come back and referee that FA Cup Final, on merit and not on sentiment.

AW:      How’s the restaurant going on?  You still involved?

MH:      Yeah, it’s not too bad.  It’s been a struggle.  It’s been a massive struggle but you know…it’s been difficult.  But yeah, my wife’s been running that so I’ve not had a lot of involvement with that.

AW:      Where do people go if they… you’ve been good enough to talk to us so we might as well give you a plug.  Where do people go if they want to get involved?

MH:      It’s Ristaurante Sottovento, 69 Worsley Road in Farnworth.  So come along and speak to us or whatever, and support your local restaurant.

AW:      Just a couple of final things then, just on more general reffing issues.  Are players more disrespectful now and does that really affect kids watching them?

MH:      No I don’t think so, no.  To be fair, I think the Respect Programme’s working very well from what I’ve seen of it and, you know, I can only talk for myself and I get the utmost respect from players and I think that the players give the referees the utmost respect as well to be fair.  You know, I think that’s been working well.

AW:      You know when players do surround you though and obviously we’ve talked about the passion that’s involved, and they do get right in your face and, you know, you only have to watch Match of the Day to see that there is some fairly choice stuff being said by the players.  Are you not tempted just to get the yellow card straight out?  That would stop them soon enough, wouldn’t it?

MH:            Well…as I say, football’s a very emotional game and, you know, that’s what it is, it’s very emotional.  And referees manage the occasion, they take that into consideration, so they may just be doing it to themselves and it may look as if it’s at the referee.  I mean the referee on the whole; I think the referees in England do an excellent job.  And the players and the managers do respect that.

AW:      And how’s it different when you’re refereeing an international game or a European game?  Is it more difficult with the language and that kind of thing?

MH:      No they all speak English.

AW:      So you make yourself understood?

MH:      Yeah.

AW:            Refereeing an international game must be a real honour as well.

MH:      It is yeah.  It’s a great honour to represent your country, just like a player, it’s a great honour to represent your country abroad with the three lions and the FIFA badge.  It’s fantastic.  So it’s just the same for a referee as it is for a player representing your country.

AW:      And what’s the future hold Mark?  Obviously you’ll try and keep your recovery on track and get back as a regular Premier League ref next season?

MH:      Yeah, well hopefully I’d like to get a game this season.  But we’ll see how my fitness goes and I’m getting stronger all the time and as I say, it’s not been easy, considering another 2 weeks I wouldn’t be here standing talking to you, it’s been amazing and the Christie  has been a fantastic hospital and my professional team has been brilliant with me and as I say I’ve got a charity dinner on May 7^th at Lancashire Cricket Club, which we’ve got Roberto Mancini, Sir Alex Ferguson, Owen Coyle and Sam Allardyce is guest of honour so it should be a great night.

AW:      Brilliant, how do people find out more about that if they want to?

MH:      They can contact Lancashire County Cricket Club. There’s a Lancashire website and if they want to make a donation, they can text Mark to 78070 to help raise money for the Christie. Or they can visit the Just Giving website…www.justgiving.com/Mark-Halsey

AW:            Fantastic. We wish you all the best with your recovery and it’ll be great to see you back on the pitch in the premier league.

MH:      OK thanks very much.

Click the link to listen to the interview.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/751463426e948768/

As well as battling the illness he is actively fundraising to raise money for The Christie, the leading cancer centre in Manchester. You can help him reach his £50,000 target by visiting www.justgiving.com/mark-halsey or goto http://www.lccc.co.uk/index.php?p=news&id=3495 for details of Mark’s charity dinner on May 7^th at which Sir Alex Ferugson, Owen Coyle, Roberto Mancini and Sam Allardyce will be in attendance.

It's like looking in a mirror (Pic: Terry Wha, some rights reserved)

By ‘eck, The Guardian thinks we all wear flat caps and work down mines…

Regular readers from last season will know Manny Road is not a huge fan of match previews. I attempted to hijack the ridiculous notion that stats and facts based on past events have any bearing on upcoming matches with the regular ‘… things you didn’t need to know about Bolton Wanderers v Team X‘ series.

Manny Road won’t be doing that this season, partly because I think I made my point, but mainly because I’ve got better things to do on a Saturday morning (like sleeping off hangovers, for example) than trawling through endless, tedious football fan sites reading anodyne facts about how many times Kevin Davies has used his enormous backside to win a free-kick.You can read this nonsense for yourselves over at NewsNow.

Besides, it’s a little dispiriting when you make the effort and all you get back is abuse from Wigan fans who have clearly had a sense of humour bypass.

Nevertheless, I did think it was worth bringing the thoughts of The Guardian to your attention, given that they made such a hash of their predictions last year.

Firstly, I should give credit where it’s due and say that The Guardian’s Daniel Taylor was the only football writer I could find who had the balls to step away from the comfort zone of the ‘Megson has done a good job with the resources on offer’ party line that seems to have been agreed by most pundits. Taylor even touched on some of the ideas Manny Road has been banging on about for months:

Megson, it must be said, is not a man to inspire a sense of great excitement, chewing his gum, looking angry, with a reputation for ostracising any players he thinks have crossed him. He has none of the stardust or charisma that some fans seem to think is essential. He does not inspire an element of fantasy.

It’s just a shame that the same paper had this to say in a separate preview:

If they had three wishes

1 Sam Allardyce

2 Return of the Charleston – they won the FA Cup three times in the 20s

3 To play Arsenal under rugby league rules

What a typical fan says

“It’s a man’s game so shut it, Wenger.”

And if you think that’s patronising, they went on…

If they want to get ahead they could wear an … Ecky-Thump cap

Outmoded Lancashire establishment, a triumph of substance over style that repels allcomers, especially fancy dans, with surprisingly effective improvised weapon. Baffling to southerners it remains unsurprisingly efficient in rough conditions. Constantly tipped for imminent extinction it soldiers on oblivious to all progressive trends. Liable to provoke pain in the neck.

Perhaps next year’s preview will read:

What a typical fan says

“The Guardian? I wouldn’t wipe my arse with it.”

In the spirit of hypocricsy and two-facedness that is, of course, the hallmark of any self-respecting journalist, Manny Road did agree to write a pre-season preview for ESPN, although they don’t appear to have published it yet. Perhaps my response to the question ‘Which three teams do you think will get relegated this season?’ (Manny Road’s answer: ‘In an ideal world, Manchester United, Manchester United Reserves and the Manchester United Youth Team’) wasn’t quite anodyne enough.

I’m taking it as a compliment, but will be sure to alert you all to it either here, or on Manny Road’s Twitter feed, should ESPN decide to re-write my nonsense and turn me in to a proper pundit, hackneyed cliches and all.

UPDATE: Just got an email from ESPN saying they have used my interview. You can read my ramblings here.

If you’d like to offer any predictions for the coming season, slag Manny Road off for being a miserable git (as is rapidly becoming the norm)  or disprove the theory that the sense of humour gene never made it to Wigan, feel free to leave your views below…

Here’s what I said about Gary Megson on the Unofficial Bolton Wanderers Podcast this week (click on the link below to download the MP3 file or alternatively the transcript is at the bottom of this post.)…

Manny Road on the Unofficial Bolton Wanderers Podcast

The gist is this… for the first time I decided to include a current Bolton Wanderers employee in the Hall of Shame: namely Gary Megson.

This wasn’t an easy decision. Like most fans, I want to support my team, and that includes the manager as well as the players.

I’m also aware that in spite of the abuse thrown at Megson at Blackburn last week, there are a significant number of fans who support him, think he’s doing a good and who think that fans like me should get off his back.

If that’s what you think, then please do state your case in the comment box below. Here’s why I think you’re wrong…

I’ve made it abundantly clear over the last few months that I don’t believe Megson is the right man to manage Bolton. Yes, he’s doing OK – kept us up, has brought in two or three good players etc – but for me it’s not just about results on the pitch or league position.

They’re the things that pundits use to analyse the game (see Stan Collymore here). A supporter’s relationship with his/her club is much more complicated.

It’s about feeling like a part of something. It’s about waking up on a Saturday morning excited at the thought of going to see your team play (even though you know they’re not that good). It’s about feeling like the guys in the white shirts and the man on the touchline in charge of them care just as much as you do… that they’re on your side. They have to embody your irrational emotional attachment.

That’s why Liverpool fans stick by Rafa Benitez even when he wastes money on Robbie Keane. It’s why Arsenal fans continue to support Arsene Wenger, even though the trophies have dried up.

Gary Megson is completely unable to stir any of these emotions in me. Whether it’s the style of play, his comments in the press, his poor track record as a manager, I don’t know. But for whatever reason, he’s sucked the strange and unexplainable joy out of supporting Bolton Wanderers.

He also seems hell bent on creating division. Yes, the fans started. Yes, we never gave him a chance. But nor has Megson ever done enough – on the field partly (Sporting Lisbon springs to mind), but mainly off it (his “pathetic” comments are not the first time he’s slagged off the fans)  – to win his detractors over.

In fact, with his comments last week, he probably made it impossible to ever win them over.

As I said on the podcast, I wouldn’t join in with negative chants towards Megson… and certainly not when the team is 2-1 up, it’s just counter-productive. But when the team is performing as badly as it did at Tottenham earlier this season, I can understand why fans vent their frustration.

And ultimately, what other way have they got to make their feelings known? Should fans just keep on backing their team whatever happens, or if there’s something fundamentally wrong with the club should they seek to change it? I believe it is the latter… although I appreciate that it’s a fine line between showing concern and being self-destructive.

Whatever happens for the rest of this season (I think Megson will probably keep us up fairly comfortably), it is now abundantly clear to me that he has to go in the summer, for the emotional wellbeing of club as much as anything else.

Was I wrong to put Gary Megson in the Hall of Shame? Have your say in the comments below.

Download the latest episode of the Unofficial Bolton Wanderers Podcast in full here.

Here’s what I said on the podcast in full…

“For this month’s Hall of Shame I’m breaking the mould a little bit. I’ve always said before that I would never include anyone currently employed by the club, but I’m recording this just a few hours after it emerged that Gary Megson has labelled Bolton fans “pathetic” following another round of negative chanting aimed at him during the draw at Blackburn last night.

I know that a lot of people think that negative chanting by fans is wrong and personally it’s something I would never do… buy I can understand why others do.

The bottom line, though, is that no matter what the fans throw at you – and whatever the rights and wrongs of that are – you should never turn round and call them pathetic, quite simply because it’s the fans that pay the manager’s wages, and without the fans Bolton Wanderers would be nothing but a pub team.

For me this is unforgivable, especially as it seems like Megson is constantly trying to drive a wedge between the players and the fans.

Most managers would rather soak up the criticism themselves to protect the players, but Megson seems happy to blame anyone but himself.

And that’s why he’s in my Hall of Shame. All we need now is for him to get sacked so that I don’t feel so bad about it.”

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Gary Megson is a nice man, don’t you think? He never slags off his opponents like that nasty Mr Benitez does. And he never discredits other teams, like that horrible Mr Wenger.

Instead, that nice Mr Megson can often be heard singing the praises of his fellow Premier League managers and their teams, usually a day or two before those managers and their teams take three points off Bolton Wanderers.

Fans of those other teams even go on the internet, from time to time, to congratulate us on having such a thoroughly nice man as our manager.

If only that nice Mr Megson could be a little nicer to his own kind. To the people that pay his (probably rather generous) salary.

Instead, he thinks that people who pay £20, £30, sometimes even £40 or £50 to watch his team have no right to criticise them when they throw away two-goal leads. He thinks that supporters who have not seen their team win in over a month should sit in silence as they watch their team capitulate.

He also thinks that Bolton fans should be grateful to have a team that frequently play dour football and rarely show any real willingness or desire to score goals and win games.

In short, he thinks we are – and this was his exact word – “pathetic”.

That’s right. The man who surrendered our place in the Uefa Cup last season, the man who thought Grzegorz Rasiak and Danny Shittu were capable of playing the Premier League, the man who couldn’t be bothered to use a substitute against Everton even though we didn’t look like scoring in a million years, the man who at Fulham and Tottenham this season oversaw two of the worst performances I and many others have ever seen from a Bolton Wanderers team (need I go on?)… he thinks we’re “pathetic”.

Well done, Gary. You just ruined any slim chance you may have had of earning the respect of Bolton fans.

Disagree? Have your say in the comments section below…

Image via Wikipedia

How the press reported the Wanderers defeat at the Emirates Stadium

- The Observer suggested Bolton’s rearguard action was feeble in comparison to the robust performances against Arsenal of yesteryear, even suggesting that despite the Arsenal’s players’ and fans’ melodramtic reaction every time Kevin Davies made a tackle, it was actually Bolton who came off worse for wear in the physical battle… just ask Johan Elmander. There was little sympathy for Gary Megson’s limited selection options, though, with the reporter implying our depleted bench was a non-to-subtle message to Phil Gartside to blow the cobwebs from his cheque book.

- The Times was kinder both to the Wanderers’ tactics and under-strength bench. Well, they at least pointed out that Bolton aren’t the only team in the Premier League to employ stifling tactics against the big four: ‘Criticism of Bolton for their unambitious approach is futile. An attack policy would have left them vulnerable and their ranks were depleted, anyway, with Gary Megson, the manager, able to name only four substitutes.’

- In The Sun, even Arsene Wenger admitted that there are times when the big four employ these tactics too.

- The Independent was also at least good enough to recognise that the poor quality of the game was as much down to Arsenal’s inability to create chances, as it was to Bolton playing nine men behind the ball.

- The Telegraph blamed the Gunners too, saying they are ‘not playing the football to which this stadium is accustomed’. It also pointed out that some Arsenal fans – or ‘spoiled brats’ as they call them – had started booing Nicklas Bendtner before he scored the winner. There was a positive conclusion for the Whites, though: ‘Though a third consecutive defeat is a worry, there is plenty of fight left in Bolton.’

- There was similar disdain for the Arsenal ‘boo boys’ in the News of the World, which incidentally was the only paper to point out that naming only four subs isn’t that big a deal, given you can only use three anyway.

Have your say on the game in the comment box below…

Read the fans’ view on the Arsenal v Bolton game here.

Watch Nicklas Bendtner’s winning goal here.

Your guide to all the pointless pre-match predictions and previews

1. Despite the fact that we haven’t troubled the big four all season, and that we’ve lost our last five meetings with Arsenal, Bolton Wanderers still appear hold a certain amount of  fear for Arsenal fans, particularly Kevin Davies’ tackles and our set pieces (clearly they haven’t seen Gavin McCann taking a corner).

2. Their attitude to Davies appears to be motivated by a tackle which caused absolutely no injury whatsoever to Gael Clichy at the Reebok earlier this season (this is a bit like when your girlfriend is pissed off with you, ‘not for what you said but the way that you said it’… get over it sweetheart).

3. Whether it’s Davies or someone else, a red card seems likely… as does Bolton conceding a headed goal, especially if Gary Cahill doesn’t play.

4. Arsene Wenger hates us and any other team who do not play the kind of football that gives Alan Hansen an erection, a hatred which perhaps explains why Arsenal only ever seem to lose to teams that no-one expects them to lose to.

5. That won’t stop Gary Megson trying to get even tougher and rougher with them at the Emirates this afternoon.

6. When not sticking pins in a Gary Megson doll, Arsene Wenger is exercising the power of positive thought ahead of the game… Megson, in contrast, is prediciting we’ll get relegated… Arsenal fans have rightly recognised that Megson is terrible at mind games.

7. Arsenal, meanwhile, are struggling to convince people they can still win the league… the problem appears to be that Arsenal have leaked more goals than their rivals (so playing a team who have scored just once – albeit against Arsenal at the Reebok – in five games against the top four this season should be right up their street).

8. Having said that, William Gallas and Mikel Silvestre are both out injured… but Kolo Toure plays.

9. For the Whites, Kevin Nolan and Gretar Steinsson are suspended, which means Nicky Hunt is in the last chance saloon (bit harsh for it to come against Arsenal).

10. Despite upsetting Arsenal several times in recent years, we still haven’t managed to beat them away in the league since 1962.

11. Therefore… from John Barnes and Graham Poll to Mark Lawrenson, there isn’t a single pundit who thinks we’ll win this afternoon… although Lawrenson’s opinion is again made invalid by his poor analysis, claiming Bolton have been poor on the road… emphatic wins at Middlesbrough, Sunderland and West Ham, anyone (you wat to see us at the Reebok, mate)?

Have your say in the comment box below…

It was unthinkable a few weeks ago, but after winning five of their last eight games (and only losing to teams you would expect to finish above them anyway: Chelsea, Liverpool, Aston Villa), Bolton are now up to 9th in the Premier League table.

Last season it took 60 points for Villa to get in to the Uefa Cup and when Bolton qualified before it took 56 and 58 points.

On current form the Wanderers would only get around 48 points by the end of the season, but with so many teams beating each other the number needed to finish in the top six or seven is likely to be significantly lower than in previous years (Arsene Wenger has said it will take less points to win the title this season too).

Only last week Portsmouth, a team that Bolton beat comfortably yesterday, were being tipped for a European place. And the chairman of Hull City – who are only four points above us – has also said their priority now is getting in to Europe (it’s worth pointing out that while Bolton have picked up 15 of the last 24 points available to them, Hull have taken just 7 of their last 24 points).

Should Bolton now be looking to push on for the European places in 2009, or is survival in the Premier League still the main priority?

Who should Bolton sign in January to try to help continue Bolton’s rise up the table?

Could Gary Megson really lead Bolton in to Europe… or have I gone completely mad?

Have your say in the comment box below… I might even argue back!

Bolton Wanderers have now lost all four matches against the big four teams in the Premier League this season.

Yet in all four games they have also been on the end of controversial refereeing decisions, including:

- Emmanuel Eboue’s offside goal for Arsenal being allowed to stand.

- Rob Styles awarding a penalty for Jlloyd Samuel’s challenge on Cristiano Ronaldo at Old Trafford.

- Rob Styles (again) disallowing Gary Cahill’s goal against Liverpool.

- Howard Webb failing to spot two handballs by John Terry against Chelsea yesterday.

Does this suggest that Premier League referees are afraid to give big decisions against the big four?

Does the media furore that Alex Ferguson, Rafa Benitez, Phil Scolari and Arsene Wenger are able to kick up when decisions go against their teams make it more difficult for referees?

Would Bolton have picked up points from any of the above games if decisions had gone their way, or would we have lost them regardless?

Tell us your views in the comment box below.

Bolton Wanderers haven’t always played ugly football. Once upon a time, in the days when I first started following the club, we played brilliant, exhilarating, attacking football.

Then we got in to the Premier League and continued trying to play brilliant attacking football. Our reward? Two relegations, the second of which nearly led to financial ruin.

So we learnt to play a different way because it was the only way to survive, and it worked… we’ve now been in the Premier League for eight uninterrupted seasons, something that was unthinkable 15 years ago.

At some point in the future this will all change again, because that’s what happens in football. Mark my words: in the future the beautiful game will return to Bolton Wanderers, whether it’s in this league or another one.

When it does, it’s likely we’ll come up against teams whose only chance of beating us will be by bullying us and trying to put us off our game.

When that happens I hope we don’t take the moral high ground with those clubs. I hope that instead of whinging about ‘not getting enough protection from referees’,  we remember that once upon a time we used to do exactly the same thing.

Unfortunately, Arsenal fans have been sitting on their ‘we play proper football’ moral high ground for so long that they’ve forgotten they once played crap football too, and that everyone hated them for it because it brought them success.

More importantly, they’ve forgotten that one day Arsene Wenger will no longer be their manager, and that sooner or later they will play negative football again.

Gael Clichy gets ready for his next match against Bolton Wanderers. Picture from mimiyaw, some rights reserved.

In an article headlined ‘Bolton F****** Wanderers’ (an exclusive! no less), Arsenal fanzine The Online Gooner rips in to Bolton Wanderers for ‘kicking Arsenal off the park.’ It’s worth reading all the way through for a laugh (the opening jibe about Danny Shittu must have taken him ages think up), but here are the highlights of author Mark Halfpenny’s gripes:

1. The north of England is chilly (the game was played in glorious sunshine).

2. Kevin Davies‘ tackle on Gael Clichy (who got a bruised shin and is expected to be back in the Arsenal line-up again this Saturday) was just as bad as Martin Taylor’s last season on Eduardo (who suffered a broken leg that has kept him out for months).

3. Setanta’s summariser Craig Burley defended Davies’ tackle because all TV pundits hate Arsenal (Burley also defended Emmanuel Eboue’s offside goal because Arsenal ‘deserved to score’).

4. Fifa, Uefa and the FA (hell, why not get the United Nations involved too?) should crack down on Bolton for their renowned foul play (they never bothered to crack down on Dennis Bergkamp).

5. If the so-called 39th game ever took place, people in New York and Bangkok would not want to watch Bolton Wanderers (oh no, how will I sleep tonight knowing that some Malaysian bloke who’s never been to Bolton in his life doesn’t want to buy a Wanderers shirt? How embarrassing!)

I can only assume that when ‘proper football’ is a thing of the past once more at Arsenal, Mark Halfpenny and every other Arsenal fan who has slated ‘Bolton F****** Wanderers’ style of play over the last few years will be burning their red shirts, tearing up their season tickets and vowing never to attend an Arsenal match ever again (not that that will matter of course, with all their fans in Shanghai to make up the numbers).

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