The Year of the Un-Coyled: Part Two
Tuesday January 3rd, 2012 | 2 Comments
The new season beckons. Excitement mounts. Yeah right…
Comings and Goings
The summer transfer market was slow, with attempts to offload Gary Cahill for a handsome fee meeting with failure. The desire to get rid couldn’t have been more obvious if a small ad had been placed in the classifieds.
‘For Sale : Top class international defender. Two careful owners. All offers considered.’
For sale to a good home. Or any home, in exchange of a big sack of cash.
The bid from Arsenal was derisory and caused tension between the two clubs, while ‘Arry Redknapp, true to character, made enquiries a few minutes before the end of the window. The behaviour of the interested clubs was disrespectful to Bolton and to Cahill, who it should be noted, has behaved impeccably. He will move to Chelsea later this month with the best wishes of Whites fans.
Ali Al-Habsi was sold to Wigan, Matt Taylor to West Ham and Danny Ward to Huddersfield to give Coyle some working capital. Eight new players were brought in, some on loan. None of them can be considered an unqualified success. Note the polite phrasing of that last sentence.
Pre-season was overshadowed by the broken leg sustained by Lee Chung-Yong in a friendly at Newport County. When top flight sides play such fixtures against non league opposition there’s a tacit agreement that it won’t be an eyeballs out affair. A shame that no one told Tom Miller. Or maybe they did and he’s a psychopath.
The First False Dawn
Whatever confidence there was evaporated when the fixture list for 2011-12 was published. Five of the leading clubs were to be faced early on. QPR imploded in the first game of the season giving the Wanderers an easy 4-0 triumph and a creditable loss against Manchester City took place a week after.
Then it was downhill accelerating, with feeble performances against Liverpool, Manchester United, Norwich, Arsenal and Chelsea. The worst fears had been realised. › Continue reading
Bolton Wanderers 2011 – The Year of the Un-Coyled
Sunday January 1st, 2012 | 3 Comments
And so 2011 ends. A year in which Bolton started in sixth position in the Premier League, and finished in bottom place, needing close to a miracle to avoid relegation.
Mark Davies gets to grips with his defensive duties.
The last game, a home draw against fellow strugglers Wolves has aroused much anger, but there were signs of things on which to build. Owen Coyle’s side moved the ball around well at times and in recent outings Mark Davies has at last started to fulfil his potential as a creative midfielder, as well as improving his tracking back and tackling.
But the same defensive frailties remain and there is a lack of fire power up front, to which David N’Gog isn’t the answer, despite his other qualities. Even if the Wanderers put a consistent run of results together, there may simply be too much to do.
Off the field, things have been at least as bad. Burnden Leisure PLC, the parent company of Bolton Wanderers announced losses of £26 million bringing the total debt to £110 million. Some parties did well out of it. Moonshift Investments, a company controlled by club owner Eddie Davies which provides loan facilities, took £5 million in interest payments and is owed a £2.8 million ‘player success fee’. › Continue reading
Bolton, Aston Villa and a bit of Naughtiness
Friday December 9th, 2011 | 8 Comments
This week’s visitors to the Reebok Stadium are Aston Villa, a club that has contributed significantly to the downfall of Bolton Wanderers. Not necessarily through results, but by off loading their less gifted players in a north westerly direction.
The words ‘Zat Knight’ and ‘four and a half million’ should never appear in the same sentence (apart from this one) unless you’re counting reasons to dislike the lumbering oaf. But that’s how much Gary Megson paid for him. Those still wondering about the real reason Martin O’Neill left Villa now have their answer. He couldn’t stop laughing and had to take time off to recuperate.
This season’s abject West Midlands reject is Nigel Reo-Coker, who generally arrives at the scene a second after the ball has departed and kicks whoever remains there instead. His was a free transfer. It wasn’t value for money.
A ginger worshipper of Phil Gartside leads the Megson Out campaign
Going back a little there was Gavin McCann. To be fair to the badger, he had some good days, but as regular readers to this site know, his move had the stench of corruption about it. One court case resolved, another pending. Read Phil Gartside: “A Cheat, a Liar and a Fraudster” for more details.
Jlloyd Samuel arrived at the same time. Another disappointing acquisition. Another court case. This time involving the larger than life (and larger than everyone else) figure of Mark Curtis. Read The Ginger Harry Secombe Who Runs Bolton Wanderers for the facts.
Villa fans have a problem familiar to their counterparts at the ‘Bok. Their team is managed by an uninspiring ginger wazzock, who wasn’t wanted and still isn’t. A definition on the Urban Dictionary had the term ‘Ginger People’ nailed.
‘The hair colour that all thieves have in common. If you see a ginger, the chances are he already has many of your possessions.’
It’s been removed now. Shame that. Of course there may be ginger people who are honourable, talented, intelligent or just nice. It’s just that nobody has met one.
At least Saturday’s visitors have a striker in Darren Bent, who knows where the goal is. Bolton’s front men don’t appear to know where the stadium is of late, although according to the Daily Mail, Ivan Klasnic has been scoring in a different fashion. Now his wife is filing for divorce.
Add in a non functioning midfield and Keystone Cops defending and it’s easy to see why Bolton are joint bottom of the table. Of course Owen Coyle has had injuries to contend with and some astoundingly bad luck. But even with those mitigations he is doing less well than he should be.
A draw may be likely in this game. If only because it’s 24 league games since the Whites had one. Villa on the other hand have shared the points in five of their seven fixtures away from home.
However that result wouldn’t be much use to the Whites. A win is essential. Sadly, with the club is such disarray, it is difficult to see that happening.
- Richard McCormick
The Strange and Confusing World of Phil Gartside
Monday December 5th, 2011 | 14 Comments
Smiley Phil
“I’ve got to say, that Stuart Parker’s one of my favourite players, but if he’s going to score from there he’s one hell of a player.” The words came from Bolton chairman Phil Gartside who was speaking on the BBC’s Five Live, in the wake of an entirely predictable thrashing at Tottenham Hotspur.
Who Stuart Parker is, hasn’t yet been established.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, Gary Cahill was sent off for legging up Scott Parker after his clumsy touch had given the Spurs midfielder a run on goal, albeit from a somewhat unlikely position.
By the time he spoke to Mark Chapman on the Beeb, Gartside was in a forgiving frame of mind.
“We had a game against Stoke the other week. I know the Stoke chairman Peter Coates described Howard Webb as disgraceful. I’m not going to say that about Stuart Atwell,” he commented.
Grumpy Phil
You’re not? How kind. Oh, hold on. Wind the clock back half an hour or so, and here’s what Gartside told Greater Manchester Radio.
“The refereeing decision, to quote Peter Coates, when he said about Howard Webb and the decision at Bolton, is an absolute disgrace.
“The authorities will look at that and my statement, that the referee’s a disgrace, is probably questionable, but we’ve had some bad decisions this season.”
After the softening of his position on air, Garty returned to grumpy mode on the way home, just after passing through Sandbach.
“Get a life and look at the injuries,” he tweeted from his iPhone to one supporter who had suggested that taking 9 points from a possible 42 made it hard to ‘keep the faith’.
Maybe Phil’s hormonal. Or perhaps there’s more than one of him and one Phil doesn’t know what the other’s doing. That might explain a few things.
Nasty Phil.
- Richard McCormick
Related Articles
Phil Gartside: “A Cheat, a Liar and a Fraudster”
Phil Gartside Speaks. Care to Add Anything Else, Mr G?
Thursday December 1st, 2011 | 5 Comments
Over the past few weeks, Manny Road has highlighted a number of transfers involving Bolton Wanderers which appeared to show the club acting with dubious intent.
Wanderers fans still in denial may care to stick their heads in this.
One was the move of Gavin McCann from Aston Villa. To recap briefly, football agent Tony McGill stated that he had been frozen out of the deal having done the preparatory work, for which he should have been paid.
So far, Whites chairman Phil Gartside has refused to comment, bar a few feeble squeaks on Twitter. However, a comment he made at the time has now been unearthed.
“The McCann move was one of the easiest deals we’ve done. It was worked out between myself and Villa chief executive Richard FitzGerald. McGill had no mandate from McCann or the clubs,” said Gartside.
There are several problems with this claim. If McGill had no mandate with McCann, why did the former player settle out of court when he was sued for breach of contract?
As part of that legal process, sworn witness statements were taken from three people, who were at the time employed by Bolton Wanderers. They contradict Gartside’s account.
If the deal was worked out between the chairman and chief executive of the respective clubs, why was the agency SEM paid £300,000 – six times the going rate for a player of McCann’s value?
Over to you Mr Gartside. Anything else to add?
The full story of the Gavin McCann Transfer
Phil Gartside: “A Cheat, a Liar and a Fraudster”
- Richard McCormick
Gary Speed – A Tribute to a Proper Footballer
Monday November 28th, 2011 | 3 Comments
Shocked. Stunned. Astonished. Devastated.
Just four of the words used about the suicide of Wales manager Gary Speed, who played out the later stages of his top flight career with Bolton Wanderers.
Understanding why someone should take his own life when he had so much to carry on for is a cruel puzzle. Gary Speed had a loving family, the respect of his peers and a bright future as a manager. Just a few hours before, he had appeared on the BBC’s Football Focus, where he spoke of his determination to guide Wales to a qualifying spot in the World Cup.
Whether his actions were the response to a single event, or the culmination of a long battle with his inner demons isn’t known, but if it was the latter, he did an extraordinary job of keeping that facet of his personality hidden.
Speed arrived at Bolton in the summer of 2004 for £750,000. It seemed a steep fee for a 34 year-old. He repaid it several times over. This wasn’t a glamour signing like Jay Jay Okocha or Youri Djorkaeff, but it was, in its way, just as important.
Sam Allardyce knew that replacing the extravagant talents of Djorkaeff was nigh on impossible, so he chose a man who the stats showed frequently outworked players ten years his junior. It was as wise a decision as the big man made.
In that season, and the ones just after, the Whites were a formidable outfit that no one liked playing against. Of course there were talented individuals in midfield, but it was Speed who held the show together. One of those players was Ivan Campo, who has a different reason to remember his former team mate.
In a match against Crystal Palace he suffered a clash of heads with Speed, and missed several games afterward.
“We are just waiting for word from the surgeon, who stitched his face back together,” said Allardyce when asked about the Spaniard’s progress. Speed himself was rarely injured, a testament to a self-imposed fitness regime that allowed to him to play in the Premier League until he was nearly forty.
Tributes continue to pour in, but perhaps the most telling one, at least as far as Bolton is concerned, comes not via a household name, but from one of the young players he mentored during his time at the Reebok.
“R.I.P Gary Speed. Was a pleasure knowing him and playing with him. My hero,” wrote left-back Scott Jamieson, now back in his native Australia. It is a wise choice of idol.
In an era when so many bring disgrace on the sport, football needs its good guys. The loss of Gary Speed is not easy to bear.
- Richard McCormick
Phil Gartside – and his Friend at the FA
Thursday November 24th, 2011 | 23 Comments
Over the past few weeks, using a mixture of interviews and information already in the public domain, Manny Road has highlighted a number of transfer deals involving Bolton Wanderers, where the behaviour of the club and its associates appeared to be questionable.
Geremi. Mark Curtis. Google it. Go on, you know you want to.
Two of those transactions resulted in legal action with another case pending. One involved an agency being paid £300,000 for apparently doing nothing. In all of them, the person brokering the deal was replaced at the last minute, without a satisfactory explanation being offered.
Phil Gartside has been mentioned more than a few times, although it may be that the Whites Chairman is little more than a trained monkey, with football agent Mark Curtis acting as the organ grinder.
Curtis and controversy are never far apart. A fuller treatment of his deeds (at least some of them) is contained in the previous article in this series, but suffice to say that he has the uncanny knack of being on hand when a player on the move dumps his agent, leaving him or one of his associates to act on behalf of the buying club, thus obtaining a hefty commission.
But there is another high profile person who could offer some insight, if he chose to. The name Sir Dave Richards sounds like something out of a Dangermouse cartoon. In fact it belongs to the chairman of the FA Premier League, who is a close associate of Gartside’s.
Andy Carroll. Mark Curtis. Google. Go.
One might expect someone in such an exalted position to have a blemish free record in both football and business. That isn’t the case.
Prior to being recommended to the FA by Ken Bates, Richards was chairman of Sheffield Wednesday. He left, with the club on the brink of relegation from the Premier League and in a disastrous financial predicament. The latter was only resolved more than a decade later, when Milan Mandaric negotiated a deal which made him owner, but left creditors millions of pounds out of pocket.
Richards’s record in business was similarly chequered. In July 2001 his company went into administrative receivership.
Now the man with the wacky name may find his position under threat, or at least he ought to, given the pitiful state of the FA’s compliance unit. Sports minister Hugh Robertson has pledged to legislate against football if there isn’t internal reform. Given the amount of money slushing about within the Premier League, Robertson will no doubt face determined opposition, but if he succeeds, several clubs, including Bolton Wanderers, may have something to fear from a retrospective investigation.
Bolton 5 Stoke 0. Watching are Phil Gartside, middle row, far left. Mark Curtis, middle row, third left. Sir Dave Richards, front row third left.
The reaction to this series of articles has been mainly positive. To some they have provided proof of long suspected bad faith – although those claims have never been made here.
Others have been more sceptical, which is healthy. After all, football agents are not known for having altruistic motives.
A small, cerebrally challenged minority, have responded with hysterical rage. Manny Road has been accused of ‘dragging the name of Bolton Wanderers through the mud’.
Leaving aside the sadly unimaginative rhetoric, those claims are laughable. The owner of this website puts thousands of pounds into Bolton Wanderers every season in advertising and sponsorship, and has done for many years. Perhaps those having tantrums can reveal the size of their contributions before getting precious.
Or they could threaten to ‘fill in’ Henry Winter, the Guardian’s David Conn, or Dan King of the Daily Mail, all of whom have written on the subject.
Information came to light. It showed there was a case to answer. Therefore it was published.
So, at the risk of upsetting the more sensitive souls here are…
A Few More Questions for Phil Gartside
What is the role of Mark Curtis at Bolton Wanderers?
How much has Mark Curtis been paid while you’ve been chairman?
Why do continue to use an agent found guilty of improper conduct?
Do you have any foreign bank accounts?
The transfer of David N’Gog took longer than expected. Was this because he was told to dump his agent and refused to do so?
Not that there are likely to be answers forthcoming. “Bolton fans think they should be finishing top six every season,” snorted Gartside, at the start of a meeting he’d arranged with this supporter, after the scale of Gary Megson’s ineptitude became clear.
The Bolton Chairman’s silence shows that he continues to view followers of the club who pay his fees with contempt.
Other Articles in the Series
Is this the Real Reason Why Bolton Wanderers are so Bad?
Phil Gartside: “A Cheat, a Liar and a Fraudster”
The Ginger Harry Secombe Who Runs Bolton Wanderers
Oh, and one more question for Mr G
Is it ok if we refer to you as ‘Light Fingered Phil’ from now on?
- Richard McCormick
What Does Owen Coyle Say to Bolton Players at Half-Time?
Monday November 21st, 2011 | No Comments
Roy Hodgson. Undefeated in games against Owen Coyle. No wonder he's smiling
No it’s not a riddle, just an oft-repeated question that was posed by Wanderers fans after another second half capitulation, this time against West Brom. The stripes worn by the opposition were a different colour, but other than that it was almost a carbon copy of the performance at home against Sunderland.
Bolton had the better of the first half, without making much in the way of clear cut chances, but there were nagging doubts by the interval. The sole attacking ploy was to get the ball into the final third and then hoof it into the penalty area, where it was invariably headed away. The tactic hasn’t worked for several years now. It may be time to try something else.
Perhaps Fabrice Muamba had the right idea. Yes, you did read that correctly. Five minutes after Jerome Thomas had put the home side ahead after a well worked move, he charged into the Baggies penalty area, collided with Thomas, fell over and won a penalty. The technique needs work, so that a less gullible referee will succumb to it, but given the creativity free zone that is Bolton’s midfield, anything is worth a try. Ivan Klasnic despatched the spot kick neatly.
By half-time, West Brom manager Roy Hodgson has sussed that he faced a side minus an attacking threat and had his defence play with a higher line. It denied the visitors space and the game was all but over. On fifty-six minutes, Nicky Shorey showed how a cross should be delivered. Shane Long, on the end of it, nodded hello to Jussi Jaaskelainen and the ball was in the back of the net for the winning goal.
This concludes the first half of the match summary. The second half would normally follow, but in true Bolton Wanderers fashion, it’s gone missing. Perhaps Owen Coyle knows where it is. But he probably doesn’t.
Rolling Around with a Cute and Feisty Blonde
No it's not Bolton's latest training ball. This is a Zorb. Pictured on the pitch at Wigan FC.
A tempting thought isn’t it? The Reebok faithful won’t exactly get to do that next Saturday, but they’ll be able to observe the aforementioned CFB in a variety of different positions. Ooh, er.
The young lady in question is Nicolle Gibson, a Northern gal, currently showing the jessies down South how business is done. She’s taking part in BWFC’s Zorb Challenge at half-time in the Everton game and Manny Road has adopted her for the day. Follow Nicolle on Twitter here and give her a cheer on the day.
Speaking of Twitter
Bolton chairman Phil Gartside is now following RMc and was kind to enough to say hello on his way back from Saturday’s game. Stay tuned Phil. We’ve got some more questions for you.
- Richard McCormick
The Ginger Harry Secombe Who Runs Bolton Wanderers
Thursday November 17th, 2011 | 19 Comments
It’s the close season, prior to the 2007-8 Premier League campaign and a familiar scene is about to unfold. Bolton Wanderers sign a new player, but just prior to the deal, a different agency from the one expected brokers the transaction.
Jlloyd Samuel in familiar pose.
That player is Jlloyd Samuel, on a free from Aston Villa. This time though, there’s a difference. The agency, Base Soccer, a large outfit with clients such as Aaron Lennon, Tom Huddlestone and Bobby Zamora, gives its consent to the switch.
Football agent Tony McGill takes up the story. Regular readers of this site will remember that McGill isn’t exactly a friend to Bolton chairman Phil Gartside, but it is also worth noting, that he had no financial interest in the events he describes.
“A couple of days before Bolton did his [the agent’s] deal, he got a call from Mark Curtis, to say ‘let me do the deal’ – because he’ll get more commission from Bolton. So this other agency allowed Mark Curtis to do the deal on behalf of Bolton Wanderers for Jlloyd Samuel because Gartside was paying him a bigger commission, and that’s fact,” he explains.
And what happened then?
“Then Curtis reneged on the deal and didn’t pay any other agency.”
Base Soccer sued, and the case was settled out of court.
Not that a player parting company with his agent is anything new, when Curtis is involved. Jesse Learoyd-Hill, was somewhat surprised to find that his client, Radhi Jaidi had joined Birmingham City from Bolton.
“That was the player’s decision not my decision,” explained Curtis referring to the decision to exclude Learoyd-Hill. “He said he didn’t want to take him along. If he had wanted to be represented by him he would have brought him along; it’s not a conversation I have particularly had. It’s of no concern to me who represents the player.”
Radji Jaidi. Was usually good for a goal at either end.
In a transfer, an agent can represent the club or the player, but not both. Agents prefer to act on behalf of the club, as the tax position is considerably better. This however, opens a loophole. An unscrupulous agent can hijack a deal, claiming to represent the club, effectively poaching the player, which is a serious transgression under FA rules.
The name Mark Curtis will be familiar to Bolton fans, although not many would recognise him. That may be no bad thing. Peter Harrison was less than flattering about his former colleague.
“I played football,” said the ex-agent. “He might have eaten a few footballs. He’s like Harry Secombe but with ginger hair.”
And Curtis’s role at Bolton?
“He’s more or less chairman.”
When Bolton were looking for a new manager, after the departure of Sammy Lee, Curtis acted as an advisor to the club, despite the fact that Gary Megson, who he used to represent, was one of the candidates. That situation led Graeme Souness to withdraw from the process. Megson got the job.
Curtis is Kevin Nolan’s agent. He formerly acted in that capacity for Sam Allardyce and employed Allardyce’s son Craig through his company, Sport Player Management. That concern was sold in 2002, netting around £1 million, but was later wound up owing £250,000 in unpaid tax, dating back to before Curtis disposed of it.
Who's this then? Find out next time.
In 2007 when Luton Town chairman Bill Tomlins stood down, he confessed to making illegal payments to agents totalling over £150,000. One of those paid was Direct Sports Management Limited – another Curtis vehicle that has since been struck off the register at Companies House.
Before that in 2004, West Brom banned Curtis from doing business with the club after an investigation into the purchase of defender Martin Albrechtsen. It was alleged that the transfer fee had been inflated by £500,000
Going back still further, Curtis was fined £7,500 by the FA in November 1999 for improper conduct for his part in the transfer of fifteen year-old Jermaine Pennant from Notts County to Arsenal.
Phil Gartside says that Mark Curtis is the most honest football agent he’s ever met. He also refers to him as “our man on the inside.”
Next up: Manny Road introduces Phil Gartside’s friend at the FA.
- Richard McCormick
Phil Gartside: “A Cheat, a Liar and a Fraudster”
Wednesday November 9th, 2011 | 28 Comments
Gavin McCann. Not a name to make you sit up and take notice, although he was a solid enough performer for the most part. Yet if allegations surrounding his signing prove to be true, the midfielder may emerge as a highly significant figure in the history of Bolton Wanderers.
Jerome Anderson. Head of SEM
The decision to sign McCann was taken by Sam Allardyce, and the deal was brokered by Tony McGill, a football agent of eleven years standing, who was more recently involved in the transaction that took James Milner from Aston Villa to Manchester City and Stephen Ireland in the opposite direction.
McGill had meetings with then first team coach Ricky Sbragia and scouts Dave Worthington and Jack Chapman, all of whom were in agreement that the signing was a suitable one. After Allardyce left, it was decided to press ahead, with new general manager Frank McParland handling the detail. In all, the process took over six months.
So far, so ordinary, but then McGill describes what appears to be a strange turn of events, in which Bolton chairman Phil Gartside took a central role.
“The night before the deal I got a call off Gavin McCann to say there’s another agent doing the deal. The night before, I couldn’t believe it,” he says.
“Gartside said to my solicitor that he did the deal himself, there was no other agent involved. I went to court, to get all the legal documents because Bolton wouldn’t give us any information.
“I then went to court and got disclosure, then discovered that Gartside had employed another agency to work on behalf of Bolton to do what, nobody knows. He paid them £300,000. For nothing. For doing absolutely no work at all. ”
According to McGill, his protests led to further questionable behaviour.
“When I complained, somebody altered the contract date to backdate it a week, to show that they’d done some work. We’ve got a photocopy of the document, where the date’s been changed to backdate it, because contracts have to be lodged before the event and this wasn’t.
“And, the agency concerned used an unlicensed agent to do the deal – Dave Sheron. He went to Bolton, the day he signed to do the deal. There was nothing to do.”
Owen Coyle. Jerome Anderson's client.
The agency was SEM – Sport, Entertainment and Media Group. SEM is headed by Jerome Anderson, who was associated with Manchester City during Thaksin Shinawatra’s ownership of that club and with the Venky’s takeover at Blackburn Rovers. He’s also Owen Coyle’s agent.
On a deal like the one with McCann, the commission would normally be in the region of 5%. Yet the sum of £300,000 paid to SEM represents 30% of a £1 million transfer fee.
Legal action followed. McGill sued McCann for breach of contract, with the player settling out of court in November 2009. He has an ongoing claim against SEM.
However his complaint to the FA, where Gartside is a board member, was not acted upon. “The FA looked at this transfer deal, found that there was serious wrong doing, passed it over to their legal department and it’s been squashed,” he explains.
McGill asserts that the FA’s legal team didn’t even reply to his query, which is at odds with Gartside’s statement on Twitter last week - “…one side of a story and old news been investigated by authorities. Club and officers cleared of any wrong doing.” It’s doubtful that the agent would agree with that assessment.
“I’ve written to Phil Gartside on several occasions and texted him and I’ve called him a cheat, a liar and a fraudster,” he declares.
Gavin McCann. Formerly Tony McGill's client.
“I’ve got evidence of him changing the contracts going to the FA. We’ve physically proved that it was impossible for that date on the contract to be valid because nobody was there on that day.
“I’ve written to the sports minister Hugh Robertson, and he’s written back or e-mailed me back to say that he has given the FA until February 29th to completely reshuffle the place and to clean their act up, especially the compliance unit or he’s going to legislate against them.”
Until then, Manny Road has a few questions for Phil Gartside. We’ll be more than happy to publish his side of the story.
What services did SEM provide that caused you to pay them £300,000?
Why was a commission of 30% paid, when the going rate is 5%?
Has Bolton been involved in any other deals where the agent was changed at the last minute?
Why was the date on the McCann contract changed? Who changed it?
As a member of the FA board, how will you, and they, ensure impartiality in any enquiry?
From him leaving the club in 1995, until rejoining as Bolton manager, you spoke to Owen Coyle just once. What was it that led you to recommend him to Burnley as their manager?
Next up: The man who is said to be really running Bolton Wanderers.
- Richard McCormick
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