Dear Owen,
Thank you for all the good times we had in the first year after you took over from the (s)Meg(head)son. Your arrival gave us all a much needed boost and helped to banish some very dark times from our beloved club.
Thank you for some truly entertaining and terrific football and for restoring some pride and hope to us all when we got to eighth in the Premier League and an FA Cup Semi-Final in the same season. Some say that it was that semi that changed it for you and that our slump began then and they may be right but even after that there were some great high spots among the lows and I prefer to remember you for them.
The 'revenge' match in which Stoke came to the Reebok with smug looks on their faces and went home with their tails between their legs and their heads down.
The cracking win against Liverpool that left my fiancee not speaking to me for two days. The win against Everton where we went behind to the freakiest goal I've ever seen but came back battling AND playing good football. Thank you too for the way you treated the fans as people and for lifting your own head above the parapet when things went wrong.
I still think you had some appalling luck in the first half of last season that no manager could have coped with given the circumstances and that perhaps with a little more luck then we might not be where we are now.
Perhaps we should have made the change in the summer but I felt you deserved a chance to show you could turn it around. Maybe that was unfair on you because as the early season unfolded it became clear to us all that the damage was now done and too great for you to fix.
I for one wish it had worked out for you. You're a good man and you've never given us less than your best. Perhaps this was just the wrong time for you to be here and maybe we shouldn't have piled quite so much expectation on your shoulders when things were going well.
I hope you find another job soon, one where you can make the best of yourself and the club you work for and I will always remember the good days. Good luck for the future and know that despite the fact I believe this is the right thing to do there will always be at least ONE trotter fan who'd happily smile and shake your hand if we met.
All the best,
Peter
An Open Letter To Owen Coyle
posted on 10/10/12
Hi Benny
Leaving at midnight mate,hope to kick back and have a little drink in the sunshine pal.
Will keep up to date on here no doubt after the Nuns family have gone to bed.
Nigel Pearson?.I appreciate your football knowledge mate,but this guy was in as bad as state as OC a few weeks back.
I like Big Mick,and I agree he seems a viable option,but not convinced long term.Theres a scramble for Ole,but I dont know enough to comment there.
Rumours are mental at the moment,heard Michael Appleton in the pub this afternoon,and mentions of Mike Phelan yesterday.
Hope we invite applications this time,get a proper selection panel,by that I mean use all resources we can.Uncle Phil has connections surely,if not lets use people like Gordon Taylor,Jimmy Armfield,Fergie even,but lets get this appointment right.
posted on 10/10/12
MT I agree he will move on and so will we AND that he won't be short of a quid or two as a result of losing his job BUT this isn't about any of that. It's simply a thank you for some very good times and enjoyable days.
It's a goodbye to a good guy and I don't think there's anything wrong in wishing him well for the future. I wish he'd worked out for us and I'm sorry it didn't.
That said I completely agree he had to go and I just hope the next man is the right one to move us back up the table and back into the premier league. I've made my position clear on McCarthy, McLeish and all the other tired old names the media dredge up every time a manager goes because most of them are multiple failures and frankly we need someone who's a winner and who's hungry to prove that.
That's why if it were possible I'd be after Di Canio. I know it's a risk and some will feel that he lacks experience as did Owen at our level but what's so great about having someone who's had two different prem jobs and taken both teams down? That kind of 'experience' is something I think our club can do without.
posted on 10/10/12
McCarthy was at Sunderland when they went down but it was Howard Wilkinsons mess that sent them down.
He then got Sunderland promoted and Wolves to the Prem.
He was sacked before Wolves got relegated peter.
posted on 10/10/12
looking at micks record in the championship its quite good with 2 promotions and making 3 playoffs so it would be a no risk appointment.we can worry about the prem if we ever do get back there.he did keep a moderate wolves team up in the prem for 2 seasons.he has had only 2 bad seasons when he was sacked in sunderlands and wolves relegation seasons.
posted on 11/10/12
I do take your points guys but frankly I think he's an awful choice and he has dreadful people skills. Witness the Republic of Ireland fiasco with Roy Keane for a start. Yes he has a decent enough record at first glance but look a little deeper and it's poor. At Sunderland he went down with nineteen points from thirty eight games and despite Brick's assertion that he inherited the mess from HW he was in charge for most of that season. I still remember his comment when asked about Sunderland's players.
"Well, they're obviously not very good are they?" He said to the BBC and frankly I was appalled. It may well have been true but surely saying it on national television when you're their manager is at best ill advised and at worst suicidal.
At Wolves he got some serious money and an owner who was willing to back him to the hilt when he signed big wage players and he wouldn't get that here because we can't afford that.
To be honest I think he's another Megson and would prove just as divisive and poisonous as did Megson himself to relations between the club and the fans. I know that many will see him as a safe pair of hands and I respect your right to hold that opinion but mine is that he would be a disaster. Maybe not immediately but then Megson wasn't an immediate disaster either.
Sorry but I don't rate and won't support McCarthy if he's appointed and for those of you who say I have a duty to support anyone who gets the job I will simply say that if BWFC wants MY money then I want value for it and with MM in charge I don't believe I'll get it or even an approximation of it.
I love this club and I'll go to as many away games as I can just as I did towards the end of the GM era but if Mick is given this job I won't go to the Reebok.
posted on 11/10/12
LPP - respect ur opinion n all, but its opinions like that that get good managers like megson sacked.
So ur not going to bolton games if Mcarthy gets the job......Thats ridiculous
posted on 11/10/12
McCarthy has been officially ruled out. So
you'll be able to go lPp.
posted on 11/10/12
bennythedip (U9359)
posted 17 hours, 41 minutes ago
benny.
he did say he would keep us up too.promoted?how on earth could he have done that?just hoping the new guy can settle the ship and maybe just maybe have a run at the playoffs.
__________________________________________
There are 36 league games left in the Championship. Anything can happen. We could still gain automatic promotion. I'm not saying it will happen but it is still possible.
posted on 11/10/12
It's very possible now. We were heading in the wrong direction with someone who did not know how or was not capable to turn it around.
Sad to see a good man go but good riddance to bad football (I hope)!
posted on 11/10/12
Clegg Megson was a complete disaster in a number of ways not least for how he managed to alienate the fans.
I have said I would go to as many away games as I can if McCarthy got the job but would not go to the Reebok because I simply cannot stand the way he does the job and I think he would be just as divisive and poisonous to the atmosphere of our club as Megson was. I would never stay away completely from trotters games and never have but I feel it's my right not to help fund what I see as something that would be very bad for the club I have loved all my life.
In all honesty about the only way ANY fans can have a say in how their club is run is to either withold or spend their money. Boards don't listen to anything but the money and so if they want mine then they have to be doing something to earn it. In my opinion Mick McCarthy simply wouldn't be a good choice at all and I wouldn't get value for my money with him in charge. So why should I throw good money away on helping to fund his wages?
I love BWFC and always will and a part of that love is to act and speak out when I believe there is something wrong. I did the same at the end of the GM era and frankly I'm surprised to read you stating that Megson was a good manager.
Anyway, I don't want to argue with a fellow trotter and with Mick ruled out this whole discussion is moot anyway. I just hope that whoever gets the job it's someone who'll be able to unite the players, the fans and the rest of the club behind him.
As SWIE points out with 36 games to go there's still 108 points to play for and anything is still possible. I want to look forward and hope.