Castrol

Let's see; Sam arrived in '99, but not sure when to be honest. Anyway:

'98/99 - Bolton W 6th in Div 1 - Toon = 13th in EPL
'99/00 - Bolton W 6th in Div 1 - Toon = 11th in EPL
'00/01 - Bolton W 3rd in Div 1 - Toon = 11th in EPL
'01/02 - Bolton W 16th in EPL - Toon = 04th in EPL
'02/03 - Bolton W 17th in EPL - Toon = 03rd in EPL
'03/04 - Bolton W 08th in EPL - Toon = 05th in EPL
'04/05 - Bolton W 06th in EPL - Toon = 14th in EPL

He's taken 6 (or maybe 7?) Seasons to get Bolton into the top 6. Don't fancy waiting until 2012 or 13 for him to do it at NUFC. He doesn't bring relative success quickly does he?

As for the great Footballing City, are you a Rangers or a Celtic fan then?

CrisPDuk

You answered your own question there, Bolton top 6 four times, Toon top 6 3 times I didn't specify a League


I'll give you a clue, where does the CL trophy ManUre won now reside?


Permanently

Castrol

Ah a Scouser who likes to twist things to suit themselves. Met a lot like that when I was in Liverpool for a week once. Couldn't wait to leave, and I mean that.

Crispy, you'd win a Toon vs Liverpool argument with me anytime, as I'm realistic. Liverpool great team, very successful over the years etc etc. But don't be a dork and try and say Bolton Wanderers as a Club are bigger and better than Newcastle United FC. They aren't and probably never will be. Go check for yourself - see how many times they've been League Champions over the years, won the FA Cup, played in Europe, won in Europe...

Check the EPL list of teams and you'll find us 5th overall (Liverpool 3rd) and Bolton 23rd. Correct me, but isn't there usually only 19/20 teams in the EPL??? What a record...

Take all the League games back to 1888 and we're a lowly 14th, but Bolton are 29th. We do better with attendances (loyal fans you see) and are 7th overall since 1888, with 30,000+. Bolton creep in at 26, without even reaching an average gate of 17K. They're worse supported than Middlesbrough!!! And that's saying something...

As for Sam Allardyce the Manager - I'll ask again - what's he won...? Zilch, zero, nothing... Same as he won as a player. I love this "Big" Sam bit as well. At 6' tall, he's a bit of a dweeb really... 4" smaller than me anyway!

If you like him so much, you have him. We don't want him. Frying pan to fire springs to mind.

Cheers

CrisPDuk

I've had a soft spot for Bolton since I lived there in my twenties, and IMO they and Sam gets a lot of bad press, there's not a lot of managers who could get such a disparate bunch of players working so effectively as a team, fat Freddie's certainly found a few who can't


My money's on your next manager being Gerard Houllier anyway, Freddie seems to have developed a habit of grabbing our cast offs