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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• Sam hits back at Lee in row
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• Megson – Bolton still in the mix
• The Best Eleven: Premiership Players Born 10 Miles or Less from Their Current Club’s Stadium (featuring Nicky Hunt)
• Megson demands final push
• Bolton No Longer Interested In Bodde
• Is the Old Firm Premier League move sunk?
• Phil Gartside, The Old Firm & The Premier League
• Prem: Makukula to return to Benfica
• Phil Gartside Scores the Own Goal, Again
• Bolton Wanderers Push For Two Tier Premiership
• Megson warns against complacency
• Liverpool Reserves 3 Bolton Wanderers Reserves 4
• Bolton Wanderers wary of relegation threat
• Arsenal And Chelsea Chase Joao Moutinho & Miguel Veloso
• Bolton display worries Megson

Have your say on Bolton Wanderers in the comment box below…

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The final round of ins, outs and shaking it all abouts at Bolton Wanderers this January

Ins
With the three ins this year – Davies, Sebastien Puygrenier and Ariza Makukula – already in the bag, Bolton barely got a mention on Sky Sports News’ overly-dramatic transfer deadline day coverage (was the countdown of the last 10 seconds, accompanied by pictures from Big Ben, really necessary, especially as the Premier League had extended the deadline due to the bad weather?).

Gary Megson confirmed after the Spurs game that he was targetting two more signings before the window shut at 5pm yesterday, so the Wanderers failure to bring in any more new players has to be seen as leaving Megson short of what he feels he needs to keep us in the Premier League.

In particular, Kevin Nolan’s departure would now seem to leave a hole in the Wanderers’ midfield, in spite of Mark Davies’ impressive home debut against Spurs. The Bolton News said that Rangers’ Barry Ferguson was the man Megson had earmarked to fill Nolan’s boots, but in the end the Scottish club weren’t interested in selling either him or Pedro Mendes, another midfield target. The same was true of Portsmouth’s Sean Davis.

The Wanderers faced a different problem in their pursuit of Sporting Lisbon midfielder Miguel Veloso: a lack of cash, although many papers and websites continued to link Veloso with a move to Bolton even after Megson had said the deal was dead on Match of the Day.

Outs
Failing to field the full quota of subs at Arsenal in early January meant Bolton were never likely to offload too many players this January. Nolan’s departure to Newcastle came as a shock to many though, including some of the players. Heidar Helguson’s move to QPR caused less distress.

The key statistic here, though, is that for the second year running Bolton have made a profit in the January transfer window, despite Megson claiming he did have money to spend. And for the second year running we have sold – in the eyes of many – our most influential player (although Kevin Davies might have something to say about that).

Shaking it all abouts
A move for Henrik Larsson never materialised, and rumours of Fred’s imminent arrival at the Reebok Stadium also turned out to be pie in the sky. Ditto for striker Pavel Pogrebnyak and Marco Zorro.

The key questions that arise from all this are as follows:

1. If Megson had money to spend, why is it that he failed to bring in more players?

2. Is it Megson’s fault for not making Bolton an attractive enough proposition for players; is it Phil Gartside’s fault for not making even more money available for the likes of Veloso; or is it just unfortunate that other clubs weren’t willing to sell?

3. Given no-one else was brought in after his departure, was selling Nolan to Newcastle a bad move?

4. Does making a profit in the transfer window represent a lack of ambition or good business sense?

5. Is the January transfer window a welcome distraction or a farcical circus that should be abolished?

If you have the answers to any of these questions, please share your wisdom in the comment box below…

Image via Wikipedia

The ins, the outs and the shaking it all abouts at Bolton Wanderers this January transfer window

Ins
The Guardian estimates that we have £5 million to spend, which is why Joey Barton (thank God), Jimmy Bullard (another person who thinks Phil Brown is a better bet than Gary Megson) and several others (see shaking it all abouts below) will not be donning the white shirt any time soon.

Instead, Megson will be searching the bargain basement bucket for the remainder of this season’s January transfer window, for example…

Swindon Town striker Ian Cox is wanted by Bolton and, er Barnsley and Huddersfield (to be fair Spurs and Fulham are also being linked). Other cheap options could be Grant Leadbitter (Sunderland), Szabolcs Huszt (Hannover) and Mark Davies (Wolves).

A more exciting option might be Sebastien Puygrenier’s Zenit St Petersburg team-mate Pavel Pogrebnyak, who is a striker. Surely he’d be a better option than Darius Vassell, Kevin Doyle or Marlon Harewood, anyway. Or would he?

Outs
Sunderland boss Ricky Sbragia has decided he doesn’t want Danny Shittu (must have got round to watching that tape of him playing), but will Sam Allardyce come to the rescue of the increasingly unsettled Shittu?

Other players who might need to leave to make way for others are Ricardo Vaz Te (surely the injury means he’ll be around until the summer), Tamir Cohen (no great loss) and Jlloyd Samuel (a more surprising rumour).

Liberian youngster David Gbemie has been shipped out to the mighty Burscough FC on loan, which I’m guessing means he won’t be making the move to the first time, like, ever. Similarly, Michael Burns has left for Carlisle to team up with a host of other former Wanderers.

Shaking it all abouts
Bolton have apparently sent ‘a delegation’ to Portugal to sign Sporting Lisbon striker midfielder Miguel Veloso for a club record £12 million. Would we have taken on Ariza Makukula’s wages if we were about to break the bank for another striker? I doubt it. Besides, Veloso didn’t seem too convinced by the delegation according to this.

Manchester City and England defender Micah Richards – once a rumoured target for Chelsea – doesn’t seem too happy by a prospective move to the Reebok either.

Another defender who has been linked with Bolton but is now likely to go elsewhere is Hearts’ Christophe Berra, who seems Sunderland bound.

Perhaps Turkish centre-half Gokhan Zan is more likely? But with five centre-halves already on the books – and a move for West Ham’s Calum Davenport already abandoned – surely Megson’s priorities will lie elsewhere, unless he can offload the Shittu. Ditto for Rangers’ Madjid Bougherra.

A midfielder would now seem to be the main priority, but talk of Wolves’ Michael Kightly has gone quiet, Axel Witsel of Standard Liege is surely too expensive at £8 million, it’s game over in the race for Bullard and Olivier Dacourt would rather play in the Italian second division with Parma, it would seem.

What do you think? Have your say below…