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| Louise Taylor: Coyle move will please purists The Trotters are recruiting their former striker to change the dull way they play and please their supportersOwen Coyle has been targeted by Bolton Wanderers for philosophical as much as practical reasons. It is hoped that, apart from helping the team avoid relegation, his attractive brand of football will prove crowd-pleasing.Phil Gartside, the Bolton chairman, is said to have long privately wondered if he made a mistake when choosing Gary Megson ahead of Coyle after interviewing both for the Bolton job after Sammy Lee's sacking in October 2007.Now he feels he is about to finally correct an error made when he failed to pay sufficient attention to the two contenders' respective football visions. While Megson's proved purely pragmatic, Coyle's was not only similarly purist to that of the discarded Lee but strangely reminiscent of Bruce Rioch's easy on the eye, sweet passing, 90s formula for success at Burnden Park.If Coyle's manifesto proved ideologically infinitely more appealing, Lee's failure to carry the players along with him after endeavouring to reconfigure Bolton along similar lines almost certainly undid the Scot's candidature.Although the former Liverpool and England midfielder had been appointed as an antidote to the, albeit relatively successful, long ball, gamesmanship-suffused, Sam Allardyce era, the failure of Lee's regime had concentrated the minds' of Bolton's board on simply staying in the Premier League by whatever means.Coyle, who was in charge of St Johnstone back in the autumn of 2007, played as a striker for Rioch for two-and-a-half years during the mid 90s. Personally, he and his compatriot experienced something of a love-hate relationship but they shared the same tactical beliefs and Gartside trusts this common ethos will inform Bolton's play for the remainder of this season.While Allardyce brought minor glory to the club, many fans in recent years hankered for the flair, flamboyance and sheer attacking excitement of the Rioch era. During that now almost idealised period Bolton won two promotions before Rioch defected to Arsenal shortly after the Trotters won promotion to the Premier League in 1995 and, originally, the idea of appointing Lee was to recreate the atmosphere of those comparatively halcyon days. When that experiment failed, Bolton retrenched, handing the job to Megson but now they recognise change is required to supply the kind of football their supporters crave.Rioch remains something of a hero in the vicinity and Coyle was singing from the right hymn sheet when he recently forgot their frequent personality clashes over man management issues and said: "Bruce's football knowledge was second to none when I played for Bolton. Bruce was very disciplined away from playing but, although his personal code of conduct was strict, he was very keen for us to express ourselves on the pitch," said Burnley's out-going manager. "We were a proper passing team, with a real cutting, attacking, edge."Anyone who has watched Coyle's Burnley this season will appreciate they are extremely close to the sweet passing sides Rioch created at first Middlesbrough and, later, Bolton.Certainly the 43-year-old now seems almost certain to be charged with the challenge of finally erasing the Allardyce, balls-crashing-into-the-corners era and returning Bolton to former purist glories.Coyle initially became fully re-acquainted with Gartside in Scotland on Sunday when the pair received Burnley's reluctant permission to discuss the mooted club swap from the Turf Moor chairman, Barry Kilby.In reality Burnley were effectively powerless not to sanction such discussions as a clause inserted in Coyle's contract last summer freed him to talk to any rival club prepared to pay more than £3m in compensation for his services.Despite Coyle saying last week that he was "privileged to be building something special" at Burnley, he also acknowledged that Bolton would "always have a special place in my heart". Perhaps rather more pertinently, the Scot recently made the somewhat wistful reflection that: "Bolton have about three times Burnley's budget."Premier LeagueBolton WanderersBurnleyLouise Taylorguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Portsmouth bullish there will be no fire sale after paying players Portsmouth finally paid their players’ December wages yesterday and insisted that there will be no fire sale of players in order to improve the club’s finances. feeds.timesonline.co.uk |
Public golf courses vie for more rounds Several area golf courses are sprucing up their facilities for the coming season as they look to grow their business. feeds.bizjournals.com |
Twist Magic gives Nicholls strong hand • Rejuvenated winner best-priced 6-1 for Festival highlight• Stable companion Master Minded still 7-4 favouriteDenman versus Kauto Star is no longer the only clash of Paul Nicholls-trained horses that will have punters arguing with each other between now and the Cheltenham Festival. Twist Magic was a stylish and emphatic Âwinner of the Victor Chandler Chase here and, in the words of his trainer, is "right in the mix" for the Champion Chase, for which his stablemate Master Minded is favourite.Nicholls had said beforehand that he felt Twist Magic was in better Âcondition, physically and mentally, than when beaten by Tamarinbleu in the same race two years ago. But this victory was needed to dispel a number of doubts that have accumulated around the chaser, who has turned in miserable efforts in the past two runnings of the Champion Chase. There now appears much less reason to question his consistency, his resolution and his ability to see out two miles in a top-class race on a stiff track."Everything about him is different," Nicholls said. "To be a real champion chaser, to me, he had to win today. If he didn't today, that was out. He's put four great runs together now and one on a track that I think doesn't suit him, so that puts him right in the mix. Mentally, he's been right, that's the thing. January, he usually looks absolutely terrible, today he looked fantastic."Last season, Twist Magic became so mulish that he would sometimes refuse to join the rest of the string on the Âgallops. Nowadays, he works on his own and appears to be a happier horse for the change in routine, though Nicholls speculated that the improvement may also have been caused by the resolution of some physical problem which he has been unable to detect.The eight-year-old is now a best price of 6-1 for the Champion Chase, while Master Minded is 7-4. But even after Twist Magic's 12-length triumph here, those odds would not be so close if his stablemate were in the peak of health."If Master Minded is at his very best, there's not a lot that would be a match for him, but he's got to come back from problems," said Nicholls, alluding to the broken rib that was discovered at the beginning of last month. The Âreigning champion has continued to impress Nicholls with the pace of his recovery, including when sent up a hillside gallop three times this morning."If I can, I will run him in the Game Spirit [at Newbury on 13 February], just to see where we are with him, because otherwise we're going into ÂCheltenham in the dark and it'll be nice for his Âconfidence for him to have a run."Twist Magic was chased home by Petit Robin, whose trainer, Nicky ÂHenderson, had a disappointing day by his Âstandards. Still, he put a brave face on the defeat Âsuffered by Punjabi in Haydock's ÂChampion Hurdle Trial."Barry [Geraghty, who rode Punjabi] says don't worry about it," the trainer reported, "because he wants a really stiff two miles. Barry said, you get him back to Cheltenham and you'll see him."Henderson hopes that one more prep run, in the Kingwell at Wincanton on February 20, will bring the notoriously stuffy Punjabi to peak condition for the defence of his title. Medermit, who Âgalloped four lengths clear of him , will go straight to the Champion Hurdle, for which both horses are 16-1."We can dream now, but I'm just thrilled with today," said Medermit's trainer, Alan King. "I was very worried about the [heavy] ground coming here, but he seemed to handle it well."King believes his horses are still not in peak form, after the discovery of a Âmuscle enzyme problem in the yard Âearlier this season, but he also had a double at Ascot today. "Hopefully we are getting there and this is obviously very encouraging," he said.Horse racingPaul NichollsChris Cookguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Wayne Rooney’s sights on fourth title as he tells Manchester United: ‘I’m staying’ Wayne Rooney has followed up his four-goal salvo against Hull City with another demolition job — this time flattening rumours that he may be on his way out of Old Trafford Real Madrid and Barcelona are among the clubs said to be desperate to sign the 24-year-old England forward. But Rooney said that while interest from other clubs was flattering, he had no plans to leave the Barclays Premier League champions. feeds.timesonline.co.uk |