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How the national press reported Bolton Wanderers 1-1 Aston Villa

It seems like we’ve been hearing this for weeks now, but yet again we’re told by the Mail that Bolton are just one win away from definite safety. The same paper also tells us that Gary Megson believes Bolton have “hearts as big as buckets all over the pitch.”

Big hearts maybe (although that wasn’t necessarily the case at Portsmouth last week), but the Guardian thought the Wanderers display lacked inspiration, saying that “the highlights of this encounter will not make it into any PowerPoint presentations put together for Bolton chairman Phil Gartside’s proposed two-tier top-flight that would include Celtic, Rangers and, of course, Wanderers.”

Clearly avoiding relegation from this version of the Premier League, or any other, is the only measure of Bolton Wanderers’ success as far as the Times is concerned. Their reporter, without any sense of irony, suggests that the fact no-one is talking about Bolton as serious relegation contenders is a “huge compliment to Megson”.

In recognition of the fact that there’s clearly nothing else worth talking about with Bolton (has he seen us play?), the Times dedicated almost their entire report to unpicking the collapse of Aston Villa’s Champions League aspirations instead.

Of course the Times could have questionned Megson’s wisdom for spending so much money on Johan Elmander, but instead – as usual – it was left to the fans in the Observer to make that point. As the Express points out, it’s now just five goals in 26 starts for Elmander.

The Times could also have noted Bolton’s failure to win any of their last three games, or their inability to string passes together, as the Telegraph did.

The Times weren’t alone, though. The News of the World seem to think Megson keeping Bolton up is a miracle (seriously, have you seen how bad West Brom, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Sunderland etc etc are?).

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

Read the fans’ view of the game here

Watch Bolton Wanderers 1-1 Aston Villa video highlights here

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Image by Bolton Museum & Archive Service via Flickr

The Burnden Disaster is slowly being erased from history

Yesterday marked the 63rd anniversary of the Burnden Disaster, when 33 Bolton Wanderers fans lost their lives after a crush during an FA Cup game against Stoke City.

Shamefully, I could find no mention of the anniversary on the official club website. Nor was there anything marking the occasion on The Bolton News.

In fact, from my trawl of the web, Vital Bolton Wanderers stood alone in paying tribute.

When I looked on the Bolton Wanderers Wikipedia page I was astonished to find no mention of the Burnden Disaster, except for this rightly surpsied comment in the ‘Talk’ section, where contributors can discuss what changes should be made to a particular page…

I find it amazing and sad that an encyclopedic article on Bolton Wanderers carries not so much as a single word of comment on the Burnden Park disaster of 1946. This surely is a major event in the history of Bolton Wanderers Football Club, albeit for very sad reasons. There should be at the very least a mention here with a link directing readers to an article. I also think that the fixture against Stoke should be included in the memorable games section.

On the Burnden Park Wikipedia page, the Burnden Disaster gets four lines. That’s the same amount of space as is devoted to an explanation of all the different chain stores that now occupy our former home.

By contrast, Liverpool’s Wikipedia page mentions Hillsborough no less than 15 times and Heysel five times. The Rangers and Bradford City pages also feature sections on their tragedies.

Of course, those events occured much more recently than the Burnden Disaster, but I can’t imagine that Liverpool fans will ever allow them to be virtually erased from history, even when 63 years have passed since they happened.

So… are we guilty of forgetting our tragic past? Should the club be doing more to keep the memory of that tragic day in 1946 alive?

Have your say in the comments below…

UPDATE: At 3.10pm yesterday, The Bolton News website published a brief news story about the minute’s silence that took place at the ASDA on the site once occupied by Burnden Park. That’s a full 24 hours after the minute’s silence took place. Don’t you just love the speed at which you can get news on the web? For whatever reason, they also decided that this should be published in the news section of their site and not on the Bolton Wanderers page. Go figure…

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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…

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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…