Target 85 Points

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There was one big issue we disagreed on buts over now.

Yeah shame really, but you know there'll be loads more to come 😉

we are now 13 points behind 6th and 3 points off the relegation zone with some difficult fixtures coming up.lets just concentrate on climbing out of the hole first,

No I see potential in Freedman. I could be wrong but he has it right in the backroom it's professional.

Hi JAH sorry it took a while to get back on this but had a hectic day yesterday and wound up having to pick up the youngest of the lPp's from school. (flu bug)

I do take your point about the prem revenue being important if not absolutely vital but the way I see the new rules we are in a catch 22. We can't spend the money on the players we need to get back there as things stand unless we get our debts down first.

Without those players we can't get back to the prem and it's vastly enhanced revenue so we have to cut our cloth accordingly. That's why I believe it could be 3 - 5 years before we're in a position to really make the push. The wage bill has to come down, the debts have to be serviced from current revenue (I know it's a big ask) and frankly the only way to do that is to buy cheap players on cheap wages or lots of loans.

It's a horrendous situation to be in but as things currently stand I don't see a realistic way of getting back to the prem this season OR next. 2014/15 might be our first real chance at it.

Teams don't need ' big money ' star players to get promotion to the Prem. In fact, most teams who go up are notable for their lack of big name players. Whenever Bolton have gone up, it's been the same.

No ..to get promotion out of this league. you have to have the RIGHT MANAGER ..someone who can mould a squad of 18-20 low profile players into a winning side. Rioch was one such manager for Bolton, and of course, so too was Big Sam. They both had the ability to take low budget squads, and drill them into very decent sides ..... and unless we find a manager who can emulate that ...we'll never see Bolton back in the Prem.

It's going to be a long wait, as I very much doubt DF is in that class. Still ..... there's always the play-offs, where luck plays a huge part in success (given that your luck only has to hold for 3 games, rather than a whole season! ) ..but even that option is out of reach until next year ...

firstof I have to be honest and say our chances of getting a hidden gem of a manager the way Bruce Rioch or Sam Allardyce were when they came to us are very small because just how many of them are really out there?

Owen Coyle got Burnley out of this league and everyone raved (myself included) about him but he wasn't up to the challenge in the top flight

....in the long run (bad cat standing on my mouse button while I typed).

LPP ...OC would likely fall in the ' lucky playoffs ' category I mentioned. As you say, when it came to season-long Prem management, he couldn't cut it Yes, gems like Rioch and BSA are a rarity ...but that's 2 gems we found - one in the 90's, and one in the 00's .... some clubs never find any! You could argue that there's 3 gems found every season ...by the clubs gettin' promoted to the Prem ...we just have to hope there's still another one out there, with our name on him ..... hopefully, in this decade!