Are we progressing or going backwards?

[Shaft]

I think its fair to say that since Big Sam left 3 years ago the club has been in transition, very few players from the successful Big Sam team remain - only Jussi, Gardner and Davies really are players from the Big Sam era that get a game and those 3 appear to be getting past it.
Some people said that Megson did a great job in moving the club forward, getting rid of a lot of deadwood and lowering the average age of the squad and bringing in a lot of decent players who will improve as well. We've now got rid of the ginger one and got a manager most of us wanted. Things are improving right? Well not if you look at the points total. We have 36 points from 37 games, last season we got 41 and two seasons ago when I believe we had the worst Bolton squad in a decade we managed 37 points. Even in our first season back in the Premiership some 9 years ago we managed 40 points.
It seems a long time ago since those days when in 2006 and 2007 when we got 56 points and 2005 we got 58 points, a fantastic total.
This season we have been absolutely pathetic. The first half of the season we couldn't keep a clean sheet and the second half of the season it has felt like we cannot score in games. I really do believe this is one of the worst teams ever to have stayed up in a Premiership season.
Are we progressing? I don't believe we are because I cannot see us achieving much better next season either and this is our worst points tally in the Premiership since the mid 90s. We are a soft touch nowadays. Gone are the days when we would give the big clubs a good game. We are no threat to other teams, we cannot score goals for toffee.

Do you think we are progressing or going backwards?

[Sluffy]

You have to look at things in context.

If we win tomorrow we finish 14th - probably with Sunderland (who have spent approximately £200 million on players in the last 3 years) one place above us and Fulham (with probably the best manager in the Premiership one place above that).

We are in front of Wigan, Wolves and West Ham - but below Blackburn, Stoke and Birmingham - so I guess we could say we finished more or less where we reasonably could be expected to have done.

The Premiership has now really got a big three, with Spurs, City, Liverpool, Villa and Everton playing for that fourth spot.

Ninth or tenth position is the best most other clubs can reasonably expect these days - so 14th is not really that bad - and even with a vastly improved team - I can't really see us finishing much higher.

It's just the way the Premiership is these days.

[Keegan]

Since BSA, I think every successive manager has tried to rebuild the team starting from defence to forward. Nobody seems to have so far gotten to the forward part of rebuilding, as the last really quality forward we have had is Anelka. In attack, we have had the likes of Braaten, Wilhelmsson, Rasiak, Makukula, Riga and of course, Elmander.

None of these names will inspire fear in the hearts of opposing defenders and managers, and this is a huge contributing factor to the decline in our fortunes. OC has already stated that this area is a major concern for next season, and he has had five months in which to formulate plans to address it. It is fair to say that we have not progressed over the past few seasons, but it is my personal opinion that strikers tend to know strikers, and I am confident that OC will be bringing players (yes, players) in to address this most troublesome area of the teams development.

Without getting into a debate on SKD, I believe it would be fair to say that we would all like to have two younger, faster, more skillful, natural goalscorers in the starting eleven each week - the question is, can OC find them and bring them into the fold? We have a long summer full of football to come, with the opportunity to 'discover' new and exciting talent in the World Cup, and we have the added plus that for many players, the Barclays Premier League is the destination of choice.

I have long been an advocate of sourcing talent from places such as Nigeria, Cote D'Ivoire & Chile, as they have consistently good quality young players on show, the Toulon Tornament for example where Chile were finalists in 2008 & 2009 against France and Italy. Here's to a great 2010-2011 season with better players and a better standard of play! Come on Bolton!