Richard Sneekes has a sex change on Twitter

Monday June 1st, 2009

: Image by lloydi via Flickr

Manny Road’s having a change of direction too

One year in to blogging about Bolton Wanderers and it’s time to take stock. What’s gone well? What could we have done better? What should we do more of and what should we do less of (feel free to offer your own views in the comments below)?

Somewhat naively, when I started this project nearly 12 months ago I assumed I could cover everything: news, transfer gossip, injuries, debates. Not that much happens in the world of Bolton Wanderers, right?

Wrong.

A hell of a lot happens, even if you’ll struggle to find any of it in the back pages of the tabloids. Whether it’s Tony Kelly winding up the fans with his latest column in The Bolton News, Wigan fans invading the Wanderers discussion forums, spoof videos taking the piss out of Phil Gartside and Gary Megson on You Tube, or The Guardian declaring we’re about to go bankrupt and the story then disappearing without a trace… there’s always something to write about.

Too much for one man, it turns out.

So, like Gary Megson setting up a 9-1 formation for an away game at Stoke, it’s time for Manny Road to focus on what it does best: filling in the gaps that others miss – or choose not to report because they’re terrified the club will take away their press accreditation.

One of my favourite completely-none-Bolton-Wanderers-related websites is Media Matters for America, who have made it their sole purpose to report on the inconsistencies in the way others report politics and current affairs in the US.

Manny Road’s biggest successes have been in the same vain: keeping track of that Guardian Icelandic banking crisis story, telling you the true value of a Bolton Wanderers season ticket, highlighting the shameful coverage of the Burnden Disaster and, of course, bringing you Bolton Wanderers match highlights quicker than Match of the Day and – more importantly – without the need to put up with Gary Lineker patronising us.

Essentially, it’s Media Matters for Bolton Wanderers. Which is why I’ve changed the tag line of the blog to “Bolton Wanderers news that you won’t read in the papers”.

If it doesn’t fall in to this category then you won’t be reading about it here. If you want straightforward player/manager quotes-based news, that’s what The Bolton News does. Or, if you find their coverage just a little too much in Gartside’s back pocket, read our friends over at Burnden Aces. I’m pretty sure they don’t have the budget of The Bolton News but you won’t notice that in the quality if their content or the speed at which they deliver it.

For transfer gossip, injury updates, all the latest facts and stats, match previews… where do I start? There are a million sites doing that. Too many in fact. You can find them all jostling for your readership on the excellent Bolton Wanderers News Now page.

Anything that isn’t worthy of a full post on here will be posted in short form on our Twitter feed, which also displays on this site on the right-hand side.

Which, finally, brings me back to the title of this blog post. As picking up on other’s mistakes and oversights is the new mantra of Manny Road, it’s only fair that I should put my hands up and admit my own errors… while trying to post a link to a ‘where are they now’ style article about former Wanderers midfielder Richard Sneekes on Twitter the other day, I omitted the word the crucial word daughter, thus inadvertantly depriving Sneekes of his manhood…