Bolton fans are continuing to get on Gary Megson's back for his pragmatic playing style. But it appears to me that he's been on borrowed time since he arrived because the fans want him to sign the calibre of players that Allardyce did despite the cost of those signings jeopardising the whole future of the club and making the current budgetary restraints entirely necessary. And the fact that those players had all of the skill drilled out of them- take JayJay Okocha, the audaciously gifted Nigerian who was selected purely on the strength of his long throws. Allied to that is the seeming belief that after X number of Premier league years there is a right to expect survival AND entertainment, even if what has brought success this far has been distinctly unentertaining. Let's call that the Charlton syndrome.
They may as well sack him now because he'll be forced out sooner or later anyway. And the next bloke who is given the same low budget and high demand job will follow shortly afterwards. Bolton fans may be interested to know, though, that Megson's
footballing style is all Bolton's fault. That is scientific fact.
You may recall the season that you won promotion to the Premier, you beat Megson's West Brom in the play off semi-finals. That West Brom side was almost impossibly cavalier. Megson used a 3-5-2 with two ball-playing centre halves around a sweeper and Ruel Fox in the hole behind the strikers. Despite being bookies' relegation favourites we made the play-offs in 6th and were 2-0 up in the first leg with ten
minutes to go before you pulled it back to 2-2. Obviously you hammered us in the second leg because our spirit was broken and, frankly, you were light years ahead of us anyway.
The thing was that Megson was never an attacking manager again after that, he became increasingly dour and pragmatic becoming the man you see now. Possibly apocryphal stories around the club told how he barely spoke to anyone for weeks after that. All down to that ten minutes.
There you are you see. Victims of your own success.
No-one to blame but yourselves.
