Why Bolton Wanderers Fans Should Be Nicer to Ben Amos

With his time at the club coming to an end, I’ve seen a recurrence online of the vocal hate campaign that Ben Amos has suffered from Bolton Wanderers fans and it reminded me of just how unfair this actually is.

Calm down. I can see you getting upset. Don’t. Just read on.

Amos arrived on loan from Manchester United and was undeniably excellent. He made the no.1 slot his own and it came as absolutely no surprise to anyone when Wanderers chased him and made him a permanent signing that summer.

Some of loan performances were better than anything we had seen since Jussi Jaaskelainen was at the club. Having to put up with the likes of Adam Bogdan and Andy Lonergan it was a breath of fresh air to see a goalkeeper come into the club and command his goal.

It’s fair to say that the time since hasn’t been kind on Amos. A season behind one of the worst defences in Wanderers’ history led to a lack of confidence and we all know that this can cause a keeper to make some basic mistakes - which Amos did.

We can all forgive a goalkeeper for being crap, but it seems that some Bolton fans cannot forgive Amos for being given a large, lengthy and lucrative contract.

His fault? Absolutely not.

Bolton Wanderers should never have awarded Amos such a long and expensive contract. However, this is nothing to do with the lad himself and I think that some Bolton fans should remind themselves of this when they decide to lay into him online.

That said, given how well he had played during his loan spell I can absolutely understand why the club was so keen to beat off competition of sign a player who was at the time an exciting, young, English prospect who had come from a massive club in Manchester United and who would have been on a decent wedge there too.

So in short, is Amos a good keeper? Definitely. Is Amos a villain for signing that contract? Absolutely not.

Bolton Wanderers should have known better and so should you.