EPL Season Preview: Bolton Wanderers
by Kirsten Schlewitz on Jul 26, 2010 3:00 PM BST
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Team name: Bolton Wanderers Football Club
Nicknames: The Trotters. Because Wanderers was too obvious, I suppose. Also sometimes called The Whites or The White Men
Location: Horwich, in greater Manchester. The club used to play in the town center of Bolton but relocated to Horwich, which is inside the borough of Bolton, in 1997.
Ground: Reebok Stadium (capacity: 28,723). Aston Villa were the first team to win there, 1-0 on October 4, 1997. Villa also hold the honor of playing in front of the first Premier League crowd of less than 20,000 which took place at Reebok on October 28, 2007.
Manager: Owen Coyle. Middle name Columba, which I find amazing for some reason. Coyle managed Burnley to the Premiership in 2009/2010 for the first time in 33 years, and really gave their fans something to cheer over when the Clarets beat Manchester United in their first home match. Then, in early January, Coyle left Burnley for Bolton, leaving the Burnley fans rather upset with what they saw as a betrayal of the way the club had treated him. But Coyle wanted to stay in the Premier League and with Bolton he was able to do that (He also played for Bolton from 1993-1995). The Scot is a solid, young manager and it's unlikely that Bolton will be relegated under his leadership.
Last year's record:
Premier League: 14th position
League Cup: Fourth Round, lost to Chelsea
FA Cup: Fifth Round, first drew 1-1 with Spurs, then lost the replay
Brief History: Christ Church FC formed in 1874, but after a fight with a vicar, broke away from the church and became Bolton Wanderers in 1877. They were one of the founding members of the Football Association in 1888 and won their first FA Cup in 1923. They followed up the win with two more FA Cups in 1926 and 1929, but slipped out of the first division for the first time in the early 1930s.
The Trotters managed to stay in the first division from 1935-1964, winning the FA Cup in 1958, the last time Bolton captured a major trophy. The backward slide really began in 1980, when the club spent just two seasons in the first division after fourteen seasons in the second. They found themselves in the third division in 1983, and by 1987Bolton had fallen to the bottom, to the fourth division.
But by 1995 Bolton was back in the Premiership, albeit for just a single season. They spent a few years bouncing back and forth, but have managed to stay up for the past decade. The Trotters reached the League Cup final in 2004, and in 2005 finished sixth in the league, securing a place in the Europa league for 2006-2007, the first time in their history that they'd been involved in European play.
Bolton made it to the final 32 of Europa in their first season while finishing seventh, thus securing a second straight year in Europe. In 2007-2008 they reached the final sixteen before starting a slide toward relegation-zone mediocrity. Last season, under Gary Megson, Bolton managed only 4 wins in 18 matches, along with some very ugly football. After Megson was sacked and Owen Coyle installed as manager, the club finished with 39 points and 3 spots clear of the relegation zone.
Rivalries: It appears as though their greatest rivalry is with Wigan Athletic, but there is also a smaller rivalry with Blackburn Rovers.
Players to Watch:
Gary Cahill: The former Villa defender was sold to Bolton in January 2008, where he became both a fan and team favorite, winning the players' player of the year for 2008-2009. The center-back, who many believe could be a key player in future England squads, has attracted the attention of many teams seeking to find English talent to fulfill the new "home-grown" rule. However, Bolton have slapped a fairly high (£15 million) price tag on Cahill, indicating that they'd like to keep him around. Look for him as a traditional, strong presence in the back, but one that is able to get forward and score every so often.
Lee Chung-Yong: Last seen playing for South Korea in the World Cup, Lee scored an injury time goal against Argentina and the only goal in the Round of 16 defeat to Uruguay. Villa fans should delight in knowing that his first Bolton goal came at the expense of the Bluenoses. Lee is young, only 22, but is a threatening force at right wing, where his speed and accurate crosses produced five goals and eight assists last season.
Kevin Davies: Bolton's captain is most famous for his physical play, having committed the most fouls of anyone in the Premier League. At 33, he's probably nearly done with his fouling career, and with only 8 goals in 40 appearances last year, it seems that his striking career might be almost over as well. But he has said he wants to end his footballing days with Bolton, so watch for him captaining their forward line.
A Villa Fan Says... "Ugh, four hours per season is four hours too many to spend watching a bunch of tattoo'd brutes beat up Villa players."
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They won't be brutes beating up teams forever
Owen Coyle’s style of football isn’t based on roughing folks up. And he’s changing things. They will play better and better football and climb up the table.
On another note: One reason to love Gary Cahill (its not a clear goal but the quality of the goal shines through!)
"I say he does have to shoot me now! So shoot me now!" --- Daffy Duck
by George Templeton on Jul 26, 2010 4:06 PM BST reply actions
Seemed to me that the quality of Bolton's game got worse under Coyle, not better
by Graham MacAree on Jul 26, 2010 5:26 PM BST up reply actions
That's because Big Sam's footprint is still all over the identity of this club, and its core players
Sunshine will come to Nats Park, I promise.
Seems like a weak explanation to me.
The implication here is that the Megson team was more free of Allardyce’s influence than Coyle’s was, despite Coyle supposedly the more progressive manager. Perhaps you could say that Bolton went back to their neutral setting while getting used to their new manager, but Coyle had them for the better part of the season, so I’m not buying that either.
by Graham MacAree on Jul 28, 2010 7:01 PM BST up reply actions
Saying Bolton doesn't play ugly is like saying Arsenal doesn't play pretty
Or like says Wenger doesn’t buy French (or anything-but-English).
Negative football is ingrained in their identity, and it will take years for the Trotters to shed that image.
Sunshine will come to Nats Park, I promise.
To give a more compelling case
Their squad really doesn’t possess anyone with an amazing amount of creativity or flair. You could argue that Lee and Holden (and now Petrov) provide good width and vision/spark, but I don’t think that cuts it. My belief is that most of the squad still stenches with Big Sam-disease, guys like Kevin Davies and Joey O’Brien embodiments of that.
Sunshine will come to Nats Park, I promise.
Can someone tell me what a Wanderer is?
What about a Rover?
Born purple and gold. Live purple and gold. Die purple and gold.
Wanderers was established as the club name b/c they weren't able to find a permanent place to play early in their history.
Also why they’re known as the Trotters (although a snarky one would say it’s either because they used to yo-yo back and forth between the EPL and the Championship or everyone seems to hate them and they just seem to wander around when they play; NOTE: they are notorious for playing really boring soccer, but that’s slowly changing with their new manager).
As for Rovers, it’s a common nickname in England. Team nicknames don’t really matter as much in England as they do here, but the Rovers name is usually attached at some point in history “just because”, or because the club had some rough history trying to find a place to originally play way-back.
Sunshine will come to Nats Park, I promise.
Thanks a lot
Thats really cool though. US Sports teams could do without the cheesy official knicknames. What about United though. Thats a name thrown after a lot of English teams. Whats its meaning?
Born purple and gold. Live purple and gold. Die purple and gold.
by RA37thriller on Jul 28, 2010 9:18 PM BST up reply actions
Eh I think it's just another nickname.
[Manchester] United used to be called Newton Health. Names just seem to pop out of nowhere, the teams are usually identified by their city and that’s how it goes— because there are so many teams and soccer is so grassroots (at the professional level) compared to US sports franchises, geography means so much more.
I don’t know exactly how United came up, but I figure that a lot of teams plastered it on because another team was already using a similar name. For example, Manchester City was already in existence, so thus Manchester United was born (out of Newton Health). Also, there was already a Bristol City, so the other club is Bristol Rovers, etc. A lot of soccer teams tend to go with the unity theme, so it is what it is.
If you’re looking for cooler nicknames, Spain’s where its at. Villareal (Yellow Submarines), Real Madrid (Merengues), La Blaugrana (Barcelona), etc.
Sunshine will come to Nats Park, I promise.
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