Underfire managers and new beginnings…
Bolton Wanderers
Gary Megson and Sammy Lee were sacked for better starts to a season at the Reebok. Owen Coyle may have persuaded fans initially that he could be the eventual replacement for Sam Allardyce’s success, but the wheels have come off rather spectacularly. Even Kevin Davies is out of form and out of favour.
Stretching back to April, Bolton have lost eleven of their last twelve matches in the Premier League, which is evident relegation form. If it wasn’t for an opening day thumping of QPR then they would be pointless. If Wigan weren’t a team that you would fancy beating normally, it now becomes a must win.
Coyle has been fortunate that the Premier League Sack Race has had a clear favourite at Bolton’s Lancashire rivals, but it may not stay that way for too long.
Steve Kean
And so to Mr Lucky, quickly becoming the most unpopular boss in Premier League history. As I have said before, it is not his fault he is still employed despite having none of the required credentials, but the lack of fight shown by the players and coaching staff demonstrate a wide-reaching destruction in morale.
The end is surely nigh. A defeat at Loftus Road and his contract would surely be terminated? If not, you suspect that Blackburn should already be preparing for Championship life. Kean may be preparing for the end of his top-flight managerial career.
Nottingham Forest
An interesting international break for Forest, it would be fair to say. First manager Steve McClaren resigned, and this was followed by Chairman Nigel Doughty also deciding that his tenure had reached a natural end.
Doughty, however, stays on as club owner (reasonably thankfully as he has already donated £70million of his personal fortune to the club), with former boss Frank Clark his replacement. Pompey manager Steve Cotterill looks set to replace McClaren, an appointment we can generously file under ‘underwhelming’.
On the field, the start of the season has been nothing short of disastrous. A trip to Coventry this weekend, which Forest fans will hope marks the beginning of a new era, or at least the turning of a new leaf.
Andy Carroll
To have cost £35million and be given the number nine shirt at Anfield creates a great deal of pressure, but Carroll has now been given time. After nine months in Liverpool and only three league goals, serious questions are starting to be raised. A goal against Everton is always likely to win over the red half of Manchester, but there is work to be done.
The most disappointing aspect is the inability to work effectively alongside Luis Suarez, a partnership that promised to combine better than Morgan Spiced Rum and Coke. The worry for Carroll is that, of the two, there is only one winner.
No better way to way to answer the critics then a goal against the old enemy.
Neil Lennon
Rangers’ fans would have been forgiven for being a touch apprehensive about the 2011/12 season. With Walter Smith gone and the untested, if passionate, Ally McCoist at the helm, there was a fear that the new regime would take time to bed in.
Celtic, however, have let them off the hook. Gaining an average of two points per game is rarely enough to win you the SPL, and the manner in which they capitulated in the Old Firm game last month has placed considerable pressure on Neil Lennon.
Win the early game this weekend and Celtic will be seven points behind their rivals with a game in hand. Lose and the gap could be 13 points by Sunday night. That’s as high a mountain as Ben Nevis to climb.
