This is how much Bolton Wanderers love you

I’ve written quite a few times before about Wanderers World, the club’s subcription-only web video package. My main beef with it is the way they invite you in to some of the Wanderers World related stories only to inform you that you’ll have to pay for what’s inside after you’ve clicked on the link.

And the big red “Subscription Alert!” banners they use to inform you of this are not exactly the most welcoming things in the world either.

However, you shouldn’t mock until you’ve tried, and the club has given me the perfect excuse by offering a free 30 day trial.

I should say at this point that I did try Wanderers World once before, when I was living in China, but I could never get it to work so I cancelled my subscription soon after signing up. Given that there were plenty of other UK-based sites I could never get on to when I was in China, I’m willing to forgive and forget and give it another go.

I’ve just been through the registration process and I’ll be getting my money’s worth (or my freebies worth) over the next 30 days and reporting back my views here.

If you’d like to join in, sign up for your free Wanderers World trial account here and let me know your views in the comments below.

My only word of warning – and this is my first criticism from what I’ve seen so far – is that you will have to hand over your credit/debit card details, and once the 30 day trial has expired, they will start billing you for the service unless you tell them otherwise.

It’s a bit of a dirty trick to try and make some money out of those people who forget to cancel in my view, but they do make it absolutely clear in the literature, so I guess you can’t grumble.

Have you tried Wanderers World? What do you think? Is it worth the money? Tell us in the comments section below…

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• Bolton Wanderers goal and game of the month: January ’09 (mannyroad.com)

This is how much Bolton Wanderers love you

The club thinks tonight’s crunch match against Blackburn Rovers is important enough to try and rouse the fans with some glorious Wanderers moments from yesteryear.

In fact, they think it’s so important that they included it as their main story in last week’s email newsletter.

Unfortunately, they didn’t think it was quite important enough to let you watch it for free, despite the fact that clips of both games are readily available for free on You Tube.

So, for those of you who, like me, clicked on that link only to find you’d have to pay for the privilege of watching the goals on Wanderers World, here are the very same goals for free…

Blackburn Rovers 3-4 Bolton Wanderers, 2004

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=A5gZ3-I5d2s[/youtube]

Blackburn Rovers 0-1 Bolton Wanderers

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TwNd8VWnFW4[/youtube]

Would you pay to watch Wanderers World on bwfc.co.uk? Have your say in the comments below…

What Manny Road has been reading (and thinking) about Bolton Wanderers over the past few days

- Four Four Two documenting how money took over football, including reference to Bolton’s David Jack becoming the first £10,000 footballer (those must have been the days to be a Bolton Wanderers fans… three FA Cups in seven years, the best players in the land in our team etc etc).

- The same magazine also underlined why times are a little less exciting – even depressing – for the modern day Wanderers supporter. According to their calculations, Bolton are ‘technically insolvent’ (the only good news appears to be that so are 10 other Premier League clubs).

- On this discussion on the 606 forum, one Wanderers fan reveals his own research into the club’s financial position, which many have been questioning since the mysterious link to the Icelandic banking collapse a couple of months back. It includes the Burnden Leisure PLC yearly Trading Report for accounting period July 2007 to July 2008 (my favourite bit of this is where the guy asks everyone to keep it a secret because he shouldn’t really be spreading the info around… should’ve thought about that before you posted it on the internet).

- Ali Al-Habsi showing why we signed him up on a new contract (or putting himself in the shop window?) in the Gulf Cup.

- The club still trying to flog subscriptions to Wanderers World, which as far as I can tell is universally disliked, mainly due to the standard of the commentary. Still that didn’t stop The Bolton News giving them a glowing write up that amounted nothing short of a (presumably) free advert. The club says jump and the paper says how high.

- And finally, Big Brother is watching you at the Reebok Stadium… apparently these new security cameras make fans more secure, although it’s also possible that the security guards would rather watch the fans than the dross frequently served up on the pitch.

Have your say on any of these stories in the comment box below…

The eagle-eyed will notice that this dispatch contains no reference to the January transfer window, which is pretty much dominating the Bolton Wanderers headlines right now. For a summary of that particular soap opera click here.

- This ill-thought out defence of Gary Megson (for my criticisms check out the comments on it). Many of the same ideas are explored here too, which I also think is wide of the mark (again see comments). By far the worst pro Megson article though is this one in which the author begins by saying Bolton are ‘sitting comfortably in mid-table’ (we’re three points off the bottom).

- For a more credible defence of Megson read this discussion on The Wanderer.

- Rumoured Wanderers targets Ferrie Bodde and Michael Kightly both getting rave reviews for their performances over the weekend. We’re also being linked with Alex Witsel.

- Former Wanderer David Norris was hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons though.

- And finally… I was hoping to read this ‘Mark Halsey Exclusive’ on bwfc.co.uk, only to be met the usual no entry sign. Is there anything less likely to convince you to sign up for a Wanderers World subscription than this?…

Your name's not down, you're not coming in to bwfc.co.uk's 'exclusive' content

- Wondering why, when Gary Megson told them about his annoyance at the team’s lack of creativity, The Bolton News didn’t ask him to explain his thinking behind waiting until the 69th and 86th minutes respectively before introducing RIcardo Gardner and Mustapha Riga against Blackburn on Saturday… or why they didn’t point out to Megson the contradiction between his statement and the use of Joey O’Brien (a distinctly uncreative player) as a substitute in the same game.

- Reading Jlloyd Samuel on the official club website explaining the 0-0 draw with Blackburn as ‘one of those days’ and feeling a certain amount deja vu. Why? Because the game was also described as ‘one of those days’ in bwfc.co.uk’s match report a day earlier (how long before someone starts to take the blame for yet another ‘one of those days’?).

- Listening to this interview with Phil Gartside on BBC Radio Five Live in which he defended the fan zone and free beer idea (he did a pretty good job too aside from the stuttering hesitation when he was asked whether Megson’s style of play was to blame for fans staying away).

- Also from the official website… I was hoping to read this story about ‘the return of Gudni Bergsson’, only to find that I’d need to subscribe to Wanderers World (the club’s online subscription TV service) to find out more (can anyone enlighten me as to how and why Gudni has returned?).

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