Don't get me wrong, the prospect of relegation is not one I relish. In fact, given that our stay in the Premiership has been so lengthy, this would be the first time seeing Bolton anywhere but the top division as I only started seriously supporting several years after our last promotion. I have held out for a long time, firmly believing that the men in white would find something in them to pull it out, but here we are, two games left in the season and still in the relegation zone. It is time to resign ourselves to the possibility that next year we will faced with an entirely new set of challenges. But it's not as much as a condemnation as it sounds. In many ways, relegation could actually help the club move forward.

Continue reading this post »

Here we go folks. Yesterday Mark gave you a round-up of results for all the teams in the relegation battle. Today I am going to give you all of the scenarios going forward, and more than a few predictions.

Bolton Wanderers are 18th at the moment, behind 17th-placed QPR on goal difference, but level on points at 34. We have a tough match against Spurs on Wednesday. Then West Bromwich Albion at home, which I think we can get three points from. We finish at Stoke City. I can easily see a draw there. Four points from the final 3 matches would put us on 38 for the season. Below the magical forty-point threshold, but possibly enough to stay up. What do the other clubs face on the run-in? Keep reading to find out.

Continue reading this post »

He has called this season his greatest challenge. But Owen Coyle, like most in his position as Premier League manager, is prone to hyperbole. Is it really his greatest challenge? On one hand, it's hard to say. On the other hand, Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the pitch not too long ago. His illness was more serious, but he did join Chung-Yong Lee, Stuart Holden, Tyrone Mears, Sean Davis, and Ricardo Gardner on the list of players who missed a huge part of, if not essentially the entire, 2011-2012 season.

It wasn't long ago that Owen Coyle was the darling of England. Bolton were in the top half of the table, playing beautiful flowing football, attacking at will, and traveling to Wembley Stadium for an FA Cup semifinal.It wasn't long after that when Jonny Evans slid recklessly into Holden's knee. Our player of the year, the engine that made Bolton Wanderers go, was seriously injured. How seriously? It has been over a year, and he is still not playing. Maybe this was a harbinger of bad things to come for Owen Coyle and his club.

Continue reading this post »

Wolves are down, I think all agree on this. Eight points from safety with four to go. That leaves us two from the five of Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Queens Park Rangers, Wigan Athletic, and Aston Villa.

Wigan are five points clear with four to play, and seem to be hitting form at just the right time. They have been escape artists for several seasons running.

Aston Villa are six points clear with five to play, but stuck in a massive downward spiral. They have a poor manager, and most of their veteran players are either injured or disinterested.

Blackburn, Bolton and QPR are typical of teams in their position; some talent, some injuries, a lot of inconsistency, and an unclear future. Of the three, I like our man Owen Coyle the best. Steve Kean has been a dead-man walking at Ewood Park for a while now, and it seems to finally be catching up to the players. Mark Hughes used to be a very good manager, but his ego seems to have outgrown his pedigree.

So, get your wizard hats on Wanderers faithful. Who is going down? And be sure to scroll down to the comments section and tell us why!

Over the last month we have asked you, our faithful readers, to show your tactical acumen in two polls concerning Bolton's formation and personnel for the rest of the season's relegation battle. Hundreds of you have responded, and now it's time to see what you said, and if you know what you are talking about.

Our first poll asked what formation you preferred our club to line up in. Formation plays a big part in establishing a squad's personality, and Owen Coyle was very insistent that our club's personality revolved around the 4-4-2. But this poll was taken at a time when the 4-4-2 had betrayed us, and Owen was under a bit of pressure because of it. How many of you voted for 4-4-2? Keep reading to find out.

Continue reading this post »

This weekend the boys from SW6 will make the journey north to face the Wanderers, and they will be looking for a repeated performance from their first meeting- a 2-0 drubbing at the Cottage-the Whites have been inconsistent of late. No one is surprised by this as Fulham usually play well in London and struggle on the road. They have only won twice on the road all year. (at Wigan, which is nothing to brag about and a London derby at Loftus Road) That's it. The Whites also manage to take points from top clubs, but conversely drop points to teams struggling to stay in the Premier League. In a seven day span in September they drew 1-1 with Blackburn and six days later drew 2-2 with Manchester City when Man City wasn't in the habit of dropping points. Who does that?

As far as tactics, Martin Jol will probably employ they same strategy he does every game. Fulham have a solid back four with Brede Hangeland, John Arne Riise, Stephen Kelly, and Aaron Hughes, which Jol leans on. He then pushes everyone else forward. The exception to this is Danny Murphy, who services as link between the middle and forward third not because of tactics, but because he is slow. This strategy works well, but leaves Fulham susceptible to counter attacks (see 0-5 December match against Manchester United).

The January loan signing of Pavel Pogrebnyak has been a significant upgrade up top over Bobby Zamora. Pogrebnyak is questionable this weekend after tweaking an ankle in the first half of last week's match against Norwich. The second half of the tandem known as "Cold War" is American Clint Dempsey. Dempsey has again been doing the heavy lifting for Fulham with 13 league goals this campaign. There is much speculation that Dempsey will seek to move to a larger club this summer. Tottenham is most often mentioned, but I think Dempsey is happy in West London and Fulham and Jol will do anything necessary to keep the American happy. If that means chartered flights back home to Texas for Dempsey and his family, so be it.

As far as a prediction, Bolton has been playing inspired football since that terrible event on St. Patrick's Day involving Fabrice Muamba. And given Fulham's dreadful form away from home I think Jol would be happy with a point. The Wanderers defense is still shocking so I can see an up and down match that will not disappoint. I say a goal for the American and a header from Hangeland on a set piece and a 2-2 draw that both Jol and Owen Coyle will laud in post match interviews. #COYW!

New Year's resolutions are one of those things that you do every single year. You tell yourself you'll lose that Thanksgiving and Christmas weight, you'll put down the cigarettes, and you'll do something nice for someone else once a day. Of course, people rarely follow through and they tell themselves that they'll definitely do it next year. 2011, in retrospect, was a mostly awful year for Bolton Wanderers and there's a lot of making up to do come 2012.

As the clock turns or has turned to midnight all over the world, these are the things that the Trotters should promise themselves and their fans for the coming year and battle for safety that lay ahead of them:

Continue reading this post »

Everyone seems to think they know what Bolton Wanderers need. After this latest disappointment at Swansea we've heard the typical "Coyle out" arguments with a whole host of ridiculous names to replace him. There has also been the suggestion that we need a better assistant manager and that we need a number of new players come January. The latter two suggestions are much more reasonable. That said, it's not we're talking about now and we at the Lion of Vienna Suite would like to throw our suggestion into the ring with something that we haven't seen yet on Twitter, the forums, or other Bolton blogs. What the Trotters need is a lethal free kick taker.

Continue reading this post »