BOLTON STRUGGLE

Published February 18, 2014 / by admin

As Bolton Wanderers continue to struggle in the Championship, pressure has been increasing on managed Dougie Freedman. The club, who were relegated from the Premier league only a few years ago, are in danger of slipping into the third division of English football.

They are just five points above the relegation zone with several matches still left to play in the season. Another relegation would be catastrophic for the club, who recently revealed debts in excess of £ 150 million. There have been suggestions that Freedman would be sacked in order to prevent the club’s slide down the table. Continue reading →

WORSE THAN DEATH

Published January 17, 2014 / by admin

The CEO of Norwich City, David McNally, has said that there can’t be anything worse than relegation for his club, not even death.

The Canaries are not in the relegation zone at this point of time though, but, they are not completely out of danger. Their points’ tally shows 20 and that is not too much more than the total no. of points secured by the three bottom teams.

Chris Hughton who is in charge at Norwich has had the backing of the club board during this tough campaign, despite that; he would be feeling real heat. In the last couple of games, his team has got completely thrashed by its opponents.

In the next few weeks, the Canaries will have some tough tasks in their hands as they will be confronting sides like Manchester City.

According to McNally, the only goal for his team now is to keep itself away from the relegation zone somehow, but, the way Norwich is performing, it doesn’t seem they would be able to stay away from that zone.

In a Radio programme yesterday, when McNally was asked how he would feel if Norwich finishes the season as one of the bottom three sides in the table, he said, “It would be a disaster really. It would be the worst situation that the club can get into. Even death is better than that.”

“To see Norwich in the second tier would be painful for each and every person associated with the club. We need to somehow stay in the league and for that we will have to produce the goods in the upcoming games.”

Norwich City’s next match is a Premier League encounter against Hull City. That game will be played at the Carrow Road Stadium this Saturday.

END OF POOR FORM?

Published November 22, 2013 / by admin

Bolton Wanderers recently managed to end a poor run of form at home by managing to win against Millwall in the Championship. The team had gone without a victory in the opening 10 matches of the season. Despite this, they have managed to collect 11 points as a result of recent form away from home. Manager Dougie Freedman has been targeting a home victory for a long time and he was finally pleased to achieve this victory. This was the first victory for the club at the Reebok stadium since April, which made it all the more special.

Bolton made a poor start to the season, but this victory means that they have now won two games in succession. They are undefeated in the last five matches and this run of form has helped them move into the 17th position. They are already five points clear of the relegation zone, which will be good news for Freedman. The fact that they have a buffer between them and the relegation zone will relieve some of the pressure on players, which in turn has been responsible for the poor run of form. Freedman has said that the team are slightly better tactically than they were at the start of the season.

“We’ve stuck together, we tried not to get too down on ourselves and we worked hard on the training ground. We had a disappointing start and let’s not shy away from that. I’m not satisfied at all with that start, but we’ve taken it on the chin. We’re tactically a bit better now and that’s resulted in a few good performances and a good few points, which I think we’ve deserved,” said the Bolton manager to the BBC after the match on Saturday. He says that he is pleased with the progress.

POOR START

Published September 24, 2013 / by admin

Bolton have made a poor start to the Championship season and this has increased the pressure on the manager Dougie Freedman. There has been a lot of speculation that Freedman could be relieved of his duties before this weekend, but the manager has confirmed that he will be staying in charge. Bolton have made one of the worst starts to a season after managing to not win any of the opening seven matches. As a result, they are rooted to the bottom of the table. At the start of the campaign, they were expected to be one of the challengers for at least a play-off place.

Now, avoiding relegation will be the key for Bolton as they were only recently relegated from the Premier league. One of the major problems for Freedman has been lack of any transfer money, but he is remaining confident that the club will be able to put a promotion challenge from this position. Bolton became an established Premier league club under the regime of Sam Allardyce, but the club has since fallen back into the bottom divisions of English football. Another relegation would be disastrous for the club primarily in the financial sense.

Freedman has said that he has seen enough from training to suggest that the form will improve.

“I see a different attitude with the fans right now and that is why I am trying to talk them through what we are trying to do and where this football club is at. This is their club and right now it is going through a period that it hasn’t had to face for 10, 11, 12 years while they were in the Premier League. There isn’t a magic formula. We have to slowly turn things around and concentrate on the future. And I don’t think we are a million miles away – that is me speaking straight from the heart,” said Freedman.