Will the last person to leave the Reebok Stadium please turn out the lights

Manny Road is officially going dark…

After a month of very little activity here on Manny Road, I’ve finally decided to put the blog on hold for a while.

I’ve been mulling this over for some time. Partly it’s motivated by factors in my own life: lack of time, an array of other projects to be getting on with, and the realisation that I’ve learnt pretty much everything I can from the Manny Road project – not least that you can’t make money from blogging; not about Bolton Wanderers anyway.

I was hoping that I’d be pushed over the edge by a revolution at the Reebok; by the removal of Gary Megson as manager. Yet despite a dismal run of results and a heartless display against Blackburn yesterday, it looks like the natural juncture for Manny Road to cease is still some way off – Megson is safe for some time yet, I fear.

In the end, it wasn’t the revolution that did for me, but rather, the lack of one. I won’t re-hash my objections to Megson today – I’ve already done so at length here, here, here and here – except to say that my obections are more about the way he conducts himself with supporters than the standard of football or the results. But the events of this weekend have led me to a difficult decision: I will not be spending any more money on Bolton Wanderers until Megson has been removed from office. Nor will I be writing another word about them either.

Put simply, Manny Road and other attempts by fans to vocalise discontent have failed. Megson is still there, and the cancer that he has brought to the club is now terminal. What struck me most about yesterday’s game, aside from the awful performance, was the atmosphere amongst supporters. It wasn’t the booing and the jeering that were shocking, but the lack of it. When it first got ugly against Megson at Spurs last season there was real emotion in the vitriol. Yesterday there was barely any emotion left; it was like watching the final desperate breaths of a soon-to-be corpse. Phil Gartside is about to learn that what comes after vitriol is apathy – and that’s much more dangerous.

What I saw yesterday was people (those that were there) looking increasingly resigned to the misery in front of them. People hating you might not feel great, but at least it shows they care. The chasm that now disconnects club and supporters, first opened up by the appointment of Megson, seems to get wider by the day. The club doesn’t listen to fans, it takes them for granted – and the only way to force change now is to turn our backs.

It runs deeper than just on-field performances. When I tried to buy a ticket for the game on Saturday afternoon the ticket office was closed. That’s right, the day before a big Lancashire derby, the club wouldn’t sell me a ticket. Is it any wonder the ground is half empty? Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, when most people are at work, the ticket office is open. On a Saturday afternoon, when Middlebrook is packed with shoppers wondering how they’re going to entertain themselves the next day, the ticket office is closed. That’s great business sense.

Eventually we handed over £56 for two tickets (on Sunday, when the ticket office was open, despite the sign outside saying it wouldn’t be). Inside the ground I then paid a further £1.70 for bottle of Coke, only to be told that I wasn’t allowed to have the bottle top because I ‘might hurt someone with it’. What other business, after taking nearly £60 of your money, proceeds to politely inform you that you look like the kind of person likely to commit GBH? Service with a smile! Except, in the words of Jarvis Cocker: ‘I don’t see anyone else smiling in here.’

The only thing likely to insight violence from me yesterday was Gary Megson’s continued tenure as our manager, and I’d need more than a plastic bottle top to committ that crime, believe me.

Except that violence solves nothing, so I’m joining the ranks of the disillusioned, apathetic Wanderers fans instead.

See you on the other side…

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Big Sam rears his ugly head again

The Daily Star proves Manny Road’s worst fears about Gary Megson and Sam Allardyce

I wrote yesterday that the football Bolton have played under Gary Megson has been so dull that it appears to have put many journalists in to some kind of trance, in which they believe Sam Allardyce is still the Wanderers manager.

And just to prove that only some of what appears on Manny Road is over-reacting to simple mistakes, on the very same day the Daily Star published an article about new signing Lee Chung-Yong in which Big Sam again reared his ugly (quite literally) head (hat tip to Alex for pointing this out in the comments of yesterday’s post).

Clearly they didn’t think this was going to be a huge traffic driver to the site. The (unnamed) journalist who penned it didn’t even bother with a third paragraph, but he/she might at least have dug out a photo of Mr Chung-Yong instead of sticking in a completely irrelevant picture of the BLACKBURN ROVERS manager Sam Allardyce.

On a page on which the actual story takes up about 2 per cent of what’s being displayed (see image above for the full array of crap the Daily Star has to offer once you’ve finished this reading this in-depth piece), they still managed to screw it up.

Spotted a Bolton Wanderers cock-up in the press? Let us know in the comments below…

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Another season, and yet more lazy journalists getting the basics wrong

Image from 101 Great Goals

I lost count of the number of times the press made reference to Sam Allardyce being manager of Bolton Wandererers last season.

After Big Sam returned to management in the north-west with Blackburn midway through last season, a succession of newspaper articles and – if memory serves – over-excitable Sky Sports pundits, lazily got Bolton mixed up with their Lancashire rivals.

Perhaps the media are showing sympathy with Wanderers fans, many of whom would also like to forget that Gary Megson is actually our manager these days. Either way, a summer of – ahem – exciting activity from Megson at the Reebok doesn’t seem to have given some journalists the ability to write the words ‘Big Sam’ without accompanying them with either ‘Bolton’, ‘Wanderer’ or ‘Trotters’.

Just check out this story from The Sunday Mirror, spotted by the website 101 Great Goals, in which Miguel Veloso is joining Allardyce at Bolton one minute and Blackburn the next. Come on lads, it’s not that hard.

Your views, as ever, welcome below…

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How the national press reported the Wanderers goalless draw at the JJB Stadium

The News of the World gives top billing to Jussi Jaaskelainen, suggesting Wigan would have won at a canter but for the Bolton keeper’s heroics. The Guardian described Jaaskelainen as “immense”. The Mail is similarly complimentary, although it does point out that he almost got punished for a howler early in the game.

In contrast to most other papers, the Times thought it was a boring game, even going as far as suggesting that the fans might have enjoyed it more if their teams were more deeply involved in the relegation battle. The Times was also the only paper to point out that the Bolton fans’ present to Gary Megson on his 50th birthday was abuse (anybody else hear this?).

The reporter from the Independent enjoyed the game rather more:

Despite the score, there were the odd outbreaks of excitement, too, particularly in the first half when Wigan were kept at bay only by the agility of Jussi Jaaskelainen. Hugo Rodallega hit a post and Bolton’s Gary Cahill had a shot deflected on to the bar, so it was not quite the arid wasteland implied by Gary Lineker on Match of the Day.

In seeming apparent ignorance of the rivalry between the two club’s sets of fans, the Telegraph rather patronisingly suggests Wigan and Bolton are like two peas from a pod (what because we’re both small northern towns?). The same report then rather bizarrely feels need to comment on the game between Barcelona and Real Madrid on the same day, which can only lead us to conclude that the reporter’s heart wasn’t really in his duties at the JJB.

Also struggling to take in the action on the pitch was the Express, who also lumped Blackburn in to the “aww aren’t those plucky northerners cute” analogy.

What did you think of the game? Have your say on Wigan Athletic 0-0 Bolton Wanderers in the comment box below…

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Your guide to all the pre-match gossip and Mystic Meggery ahead of Bolton v Fulham

Reasons to be cheerful
1. Fulham have not won away from home this season and have only scored three goals on their travels. Basically they’re completely useless away from Craven Cottage.

2. Defeat against Blackburn also shows they’re tired and running out of steam, according to Roy Hodgson.

3. There should be a big crowd to cheer on the Whites, thanks to the club’s £10 ticket offer and Ladies Day.

4. Like pretty much every manager, Hodgson seems to think aerial prowess is our only threat.

5. In the nine days since we last played, Fulham have played twice.

6.The Stoke game aside, we’re on a good run with three wins from five.

7. Aaron Hughes is injured for the visitors. Someone called Toni Kallio will play instead.

Reasons to be fearful
8. Victory could see us climb as high as ninth, so expect nose bleeds all round.

9. By Gary Megson’s own admission, we were bloody awful against Stoke.

10. Fulham took us to pieces at Craven Cottage earlier this season.

Share your predictions for the game in the comment box below…

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The Bolton manager’s Facebook charm offensive

I wrote a few months back about Gary Megson trying to win over some fans by accepting them as friends on Facebook.

Since then, of course, his roller-coaster relationship with the supporters has had several more ups and downs, most notably when he called travelling fans at Blackburn “pathetic”.

Now it seems that he doesn’t want to be Facebok friends anymore.

I’m not quite sure when it happened but I noticed his absence from my list of friends yesterday. At first I thought maybe he’d been reading some of the things I’ve written about him, but after doing some searches it appears his profile has been deleted altogether.

And unlike Manny Road, he doesn’t seem to have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon either.

For those who added Megson as a friend, you can replace his friendship by becoming a ‘fan’ of him on Facebook, although personally I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

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Image via Wikipedia

Former Wanderers star allegedly falls foul of prank call

I was always slightly uneasy with the amount of respect El-Hadji Diouf seemed to get from Bolton Wanderers fans.

After all, despite his efforts on the field for the Whites, various incidents – including spitting and drink driving (both glorified in a popular terrace chant) – indicated he was a deeply unpleasant human being.

Having failed to convince anyone at Sunderland to the contrary during his brief stay there (he threatened to stab his team-mate Anton Ferdinand), Diouf’s career now seems to have hit another low point after he allegedly fell victim to a prank telephone call, a recording of which appeared on the internet on Friday.

It should be said that some of the things said by the pranksters somewhat undermine their attempt to take the moral high ground, but if it is Diouf they were speaking to then it will confirm many people’s negative view of the now Blackburn player.

Is it Diouf in the recording? Judge for yourselves below (for those who would prefer not to hear grown men talking about what they would do to each other’s mothers and one-year-old children, click away now)…

Click here to view the embedded video.

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And the winners are… Kevin Davies and the victory over Tottenham

For a while it looked like Ebi Smolarek was going to be the only runner for this award after his consolation goal against Sunderland in the FA Cup at the start of the month.

But in the end five goals in the last two games of January – against Blackburn and Spurs – meant we were spoilt for choice.

The clear winner, though, was Kevin Davies for his cool and collected finish against Tottenham in what was a man of the match display.

And given that that game was also the Wanderers only win in January, it’s also the obvious winner of the game of the month award.

Disagree? Leave your comments below…

To watch highlights from Bolton’s 3-2 win over Spurs click here.

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And the winner is… Chris Basham

He may have been left out of the team’s only win of the month against Spurs, but the emergence of Chris Basham in January was a ray of light as the team struggled to pick up points against Arsenal, Manchester United and Blackburn.

He looked committed and assured at right back at the Emirates and then showed his maturity by stepping in to midfield against the European champions.

He looks like a real find and, along with the signing of Mark Davies, is a good reason not to be too disappointed about Kevin Nolan’s departure to Newcastle.

Disagree? Have your say in the comments below…

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What Manny Road has been reading about Bolton Wanderers over the last week or so

• All quiet on the Anti-Megson Front
• Why are Bolton fans so negative to Gary Megson?
• Taylor backs under-fire boss
• Protests before the Spurs game
• I’m going to throw my season ticket on the pitch if we lose today
• BBC bias towards Bolton
• Diouf transfer to Blackburn triggered by angry dressing-room row at Sunderland
• Bolton boss Megson confident fans are with him
• Bolton defender Puygrenier: Call me Steak
• The career of Mark Davies at Wolves – in pictures
• Davies didn’t fulfil potential – Wolves boss Mick McCarthy
• Youri Djorkaeff Offered Advisory Role At PSG
• Can Mark Davies Really Save Bolton Wanderers from the drop?
• Why Bolton are in serious need of some creative reinforcement

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