Opinion: The case for a fresh start at Bolton Wanderers

Things are happening.

As we saw last night, Bolton Wanderers’ game against Wycombe Wanderers at weekend is 100% going ahead. We sit and await positive news on the takeover front.

We have no idea what sort of team we’ll have out. What we do know however is that there are a few of our former players (the really, really bad ones) floating around without a club. Let’s hope we don’t see any of them again.

Granted, when the transfer situation becomes clearer, these ex-Wanderers will be the easy win. They’ll be the cheap, desperate kind of signing that a new owner could make to fill in the gaps in our depleted squad.

However, I think this would be a massive mistake.

For too long have we meekly accepted failure. This allowed the likes of Craig Noone and Will Buckley to stay when they should’ve been chucked at the earliest opportunity.

My recruitment policy, if I was in charge, would be to start afresh. I would rid the club of the stench of failure that the players from the last couple of seasons have lingering around them.

Bring in new players. Bring in players for whom Bolton Wanderers represents the absolute pinnacle of their career. Players who would see Wanderers as the perfect platform to display their talents. Don’t give me players on the way down, let’s bring in those who would be proud to play for us. Give me players for whom playing for Bolton is undoubtedly a big deal.

This also goes for the manager, by the way. Don’t get me wrong, if he’s in charge at Christmas then that means we’ve been successful (in whatever that is manifested) but had things been ideal then Parkinson too would have been on his bike.

Will this all pan out? I guess we’ll find out on Saturday.