Best Of

From the interviews I've seen over the last few months plus a foray into the Bolton forums, he does not appear to take ownership of issues and has looked to point the finger elsewhere. He appears to hold grudges.

He comes across that it's either his way or not at all. Adding to that, my gut is, lots of people would present ideas - he would ignore them - then come back two weeks later saying I've had this great idea, let's do this and present it as his own. As the original suggestor rolls their eyes and hits head against brick wall.

There is a time and place to publicly criticise your key stakeholders and where possible it should be as infrequently as possible. Evatt seems to do it most weeks, particularly with players and fans.

Clearly not zero experience. But stepping up from behind a senior manager can work ok. And Evatt seemed like an alienating character to me. I must admit I only took interest in him during the last months of his tenure but blaming just about everyone but himself was his normal response.

The other factor of course is the style the owners want for the club. At the two public meetings Dan Rice has said they would look for a consistent playing style to allow young players to make the transition through to the senior team. That style would probably be what we are playing now of course. In which case we need to recruit a manager who believes in that as opposed to a John Beck type. All of this narrows down the field in the UK. You are not likely to get an old school manager who is willing to do away with their lifelong belief in doing things the way they always have. That is why I am leaning towards a fresh unblemished talent which most certainly can work even at the highest of levels.

Cue Ian Holloway being announced

Thank you for pointing that out @micra and I apologise to all of the Female posters on here

Whatever was known or felt about the departure, we know the result, the sudden pivot by some to then attacking the character, skills or motivations of the manager who took us to second in the League and delighting in his travails at Lu,on, I found depressing. When a previously mainly sidelined hater is getting likes for his spleen you know the world has turned upside down.

You can want the club to grow, develop and succeed as well as hoping the things you like about the place aren't entirely destroyed in that effort. I doubt I'll live to see a new stadium, chairlift, special club crisp brand, promotion to the Premier League, but I hope the owners do it with the fans and not despite them.

We can all take a break from the gasroom when we get the bumhole, @drcongo is possibly not so lucky...so I say again...all hail the doc.

Oh and Evatt? NO!

Excellent post @Otter87.

”Gents” is an interesting opening and it always feels like the vast majority on here are of that gender. I’m only aware of one lady subscriber. But we don’t know.

I occasionally have a gander at the Wanderers Friends Facebook page (not to be confused with the Fans page) mainly because Dave Gardner, who runs it (together with Lisa Bowker?) is a good friend and moderates it very well - often bringing common sense and sound knowledge to bear when in his judgment people appear to be ill-informed or are offending the code of civility and of course friendship in some way. Interestingly, there are plenty of ladies on that forum.

Possibly the greatest Gasroom post of all time

Evatt comes across as a prize prat. Certainly not someone who would help to keep the dressing room spirit high. For all his success at Bolton, I'd be extremely disappointed if we appointed him based on his appalling character alone.

I’m not a Leahy hater but I would rather have Butcher. I think he is the most likely of the current squad, excluding the new signings, to play the Morley role.

I actually believe Leahy to be better playing further forward maybe in the no. 10 role. It’s all personal opinion and everyone has different opinions. Who’d be a manager🤷‍♂️

That genuinely made me laugh out loud on the train.

Thanks I needed that.

(And apologies to @TheAndyGrahamFanClub as for some reason i originally had their post linked)

"Football and everything to do with it is an emotional game and sometimes that spills over, just remember that none of us (except for a few) know each other's personal situation and some comments can cut deeper than you are aware of. Mental health has been spoken about a few times and I myself took a month out because some comments got to me and I needed that break. I just want us to take things easy because if this forum was to disappear, I think it would be a very sad day for us all."

Well put Otter. Everybody can and should be able to voice their opinion and we can all agree and disagree but there is almost never a need to start insulting somebody else for having a different view point or perspective.

I think multiple people have mentioned keeping a thread named "new manager rumour mill" to rumours about a new manager and venting about the MB and Dan Rice piece elsewhere on a relevant thread for it.... which seems like a common sense/adult approach to me.