Written by Cameron Sharpe
Four years ago BBC Five Live football correspondent, Alan Green, a closet Liverpool fan, savaged the football style of Bolton after the Trotters had ridden out a red storm to secure an important draw with Arsenal. Green described the Bolton way of football as “garbage” something that he “wouldn’t pay to watch.”
Move the clock forward five years, and there are rumours surfacing that Green’s beloved Liverpool are looking to tempt current Bolton boss, Owen Coyle, to Anfield at the end of the season. There may be several obstacles to Coyle’s appointment on Merseyside, not least the burning desire of Kenny Dalglish to keep his job full time, however for Coyle it is a endorsement of the quality he has brought to the Reebok during his 12 months in charge.
Pundits, like fans, can be extraordinarily fickle. Gary Megson was arguably right to feel aggrieved after being sacked by Bolton halfway through the 2009-10 season, and Coyle’s appointment as his successor was deemed a positive move, if a risky one considering the Scotsman’s relative inexperience in the top-flight.
For a side famed for their physical, almost ‘Crazy Gang’ style of football, 2010 was something of a watershed for the Trotters. It would be one eyed to suggest that Coyle has suddenly transformed his new club into a team pursuing total football, however he has been able to incorporate the tools left to him by previous regimes and instil in them a more aesthetic approach to the game.
The selection of Kevin Davies by England manager Fabio Capello was the first indication that the Bolton system was beginning to make people take notice of the club once derided by Green. Coyle’s pairing of club captain Davies with Johan Elmander, has convinced many that Davies is not simply a big target man, and Bolton not simply an unattractive side.
Undoubtedly, their success has come at a time where many other Premier League clubs are going through a transitional phase, enabling Coyle’s men to scale heights they may have been unable to in previous seasons.
It is an indication of the bizarre phase of Premiership history in which we currently reside that Coyle may find accepting the Liverpool job to be something he shies away from, such is the state of the red half of Merseyside.
The former Burnley manager will have seen Roy Hodgson’s tumultuous reign draw to a close this week and acknowledged the difficulty in walking into a club where you are not the man the fans want to see. However, if King Kenny does not deliver the passion and, more importantly, results required over the next five months, a prolonged period of Bolton success could mean the knock on Coyle’s door becomes too loud to ignore. He may even find Alan Green leading the welcoming party.
This article was first published on FootballFanCast.com
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