Opinion: Can any of Bolton Wanderers’ free agents still do a job for us?

With a little over a week to go until the first fixture of Bolton Wanderers’ 2019/20 League One season, Wanderers remain in a shocking state.

Well-documented have been the problems faced by the administrators (not least of which being the world’s most impatient fanbase), but manager Phil Parkinson (sigh) has had a much disrupted pre-season. Granted, the shitbags who went on strike last season have caused most of this, but the situation with our long-mooted takeover has done nothing to help, either.

Earlier this week Wanderers beat Bradford City in a behind-closed-doors friendly designed to give some of our first team stars (don’t laugh) the chance to get some much-needed game time under their belts.

I mean they could have just played the games that they went on strike for, but that’s for another day.

So, with Parkinson calling upon many of the team who let us down so awfully last season, it seems that our unimaginative recruitment policy could well see some of these same losers pulling on the shirt again come the start of the season almost by default.

Could any of them do a job? Probably.

Gary O’Neil won many Player of the Year votes last season - not because he was any good - he wasn’t - but because he was the most less-shit of them all.

Nobody wants to see Will Buckley again. In any context.

There are some who want to see David Wheater back at Bolton. Given his performances over the last two years I’m not really sure why, but then again you’re talking about people who went to see the Laurence Bassini show IN THEIR OWN FREE TIME.

Andrew Taylor has been past it since before he even signed. Thankfully Clayton Donaldson has already gone.

Phil Parkinson is the one whose continued presence baffles the most. Granted, we’re at that time now where sacking him makes little sense, but I would still be amazed if he saw out September in post.

All this combined leaves us with a difficult question to ponder. We have become so accustomed to failure over the last few years that we have tolerated the likes of Wheater, Taylor and Buckley being part of our club when, in reality, they deserve to be exactly nowhere near it.

I can only hope that the FV deal gets done so that we can embark on a programme of sweeping change - one that rids the club of the acceptance of failure and mediocrity that has enveloped the club.

Just don’t bring Buckley back.