I know this will be an unpopular stance to take. Many Bolton fans have been calling for Megson's head since last season, during our dreadful relegation battle. Although I haven't been to the Reebok this season (as much as I love the Wanderers, the 4768 mile commute is just not doable every Saturday), I have a feeling it will be (painfully) similar to last season. So read on please and find out why I think Megson is key to our success (or what Trotters will have to call "success")
I'm sure we are fully aware of Megson's (many) downsides. One of the most obvious ones is his style and tendency to encourage uncreative, and just plain ugly football. In fact I'm pretty sure his strategy consists of "Get the ball to Matty or Kev, see if they can do something with it", which, needless to say, does not produce the best results. Sometimes though Bolton do play well, like many smaller clubs, which brings me to my next point, that Megson has not managed to produce consistency (I mean last season when I say that, so far this season, we've been pretty consistently dreadful). All that aside I could probably forgive him, except there's the fact that he's a ginger. And clearly ginger's have no souls, and shouldn't be allowed to manage football clubs. (Just kidding about that part obviously, my best friend's a ginger and I'm fairly positive she has a soul)
So as you can tell from the above paragraph I am no big Megson fan. In fact I rather dislike him. "So then," you ask to yourself, "why is this silly girl telling us to keep him?" Well I'm glad you asked, even though it wasn't directed at me, as I'm about to tell you. As we have seen time and time again in these volatile days managers can get sacked at the drop of a hat (or the drop of 3 points). It would put the players and support staff through hell trying to adapt to a new person, and it is very likely that we would go through a bad period that could see us relegated. England fans will remember Steve McClaren's disastrous reign all too well, and he serves as a perfect example of what I'm about to say. Although Sven definitely had his down points, after being sacked he was replaced by someone much, much worse, and it looked like we should have just stuck with Sven after all. This is definitely an all too real possibility, we have no guarantee that Megson's successor will be better than him, and I am fairly sure that we won't go down under Megson.
Personally I really could do without the man, but we can't. I have faith that Megson can do what's required, what is my real priority in terms of Bolton right now, and that is to stay up. It would, however, be nice if he magically became a brilliant manager, which is not too much to ask right? Ok so it is, and even if it isn't it won't happen, so I'll ask for something else. I want the supporters who can make it out to the Reebok every Saturday, especially this one, to stop with this "Megson out" chant. It brings down the atmosphere, and it brings down the players. Think if you were trying to play a game in front of 20,000 people. You would want people to be chanting your name, your team name, bringing you up. That's what a supporter does, hence the name (you see the word "support" in there? Tricky, I know). You don't pay to go shout negative things about your club, you go out to SUPPORT. So please, more fortunately located readers, Wanderers fans, take into account what I have said. Go out and support our boys this Saturday. Sing loud, sing positive, SUPPORT. I'll be sitting on my couch in Austin, Texas, wearing my Bolton scarf, singing out a solo of "We are the one and only Wanderers!"