Marked for Mark Hunter
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Aug 2038
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad30 Aug 2038
Scott Twine was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market30 Aug 2038
James Roberts has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bolton Wanderers they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom30 Aug 2038
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Bolton Wanderers now.
Squad30 Aug 2038
Words at Bolton Wanderers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erwan Antonin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad30 Aug 2038
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Johnny Kenny, and the manager let it.
Player ratings30 Aug 2038
Marked 9.04 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match28 Aug 2038
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match28 Aug 2038
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jacob Poytress
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bolton Wanderers lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Aug 2038
A fracture rules Toby Ritchie out for 14 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bolton Wanderers will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad9 Aug 2038
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Scott Twine commits to Bolton Wanderers for another 2 years.
Squad9 Aug 2038
Scott Twine in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bolton Wanderers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom9 Aug 2038
8 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jul 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jacob Poytress
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bolton Wanderers lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom12 Jul 2038
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Bolton Wanderers
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad12 Jul 2038
A fracture rules Toby Ritchie out for 42 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bolton Wanderers will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Jul 2038
Scott Twine in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bolton Wanderers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2038
Erwan Antonin falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jun 2038
Jacob Poytress damages knee ligaments — 74 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 74 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad14 Jun 2038
Toby Ritchie breaks a bone — 70 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom14 Jun 2038
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Bolton Wanderers
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad14 Jun 2038
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bolton Wanderers may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 Jun 2038
Scott Twine was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market14 Jun 2038
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Xavier Simons signs something — a contract at Bolton Wanderers or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Dec 2037
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad7 Dec 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings7 Dec 2037
Age has not caught Chris Forino yet — 8.50
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.50 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market7 Dec 2037
Mark Hunter hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bolton Wanderers can pretend not to have heard.
Match5 Dec 2037
7 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match5 Dec 2037
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad7 Dec 2037
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bolton Wanderers have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Dec 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Chris Forino and Bolton Wanderers agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2037
Scott Twine in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bolton Wanderers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Nov 2037
A 0‑3 beating by Preston was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Charlie Quirk breaks a bone — 28 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market9 Nov 2037
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bolton Wanderers, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Nov 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bolton Wanderers may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Scott Twine in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bolton Wanderers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom9 Nov 2037
Wages eat 105% of everything Bolton Wanderers earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Boardroom9 Nov 2037
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Oct 2037
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad12 Oct 2037
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings12 Oct 2037
Age has not caught Scott Twine yet — 9.03
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market12 Oct 2037
Mark Hunter hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bolton Wanderers can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Oct 2037
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Scott Twine was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Words at Bolton Wanderers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erwan Antonin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2037
13 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match12 Sep 2037
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Bolton Wanderers are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
Two goals and a mark of 8.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market14 Sep 2037
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bolton Wanderers, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
Johnny Kenny, 34, rolls back the years — 8.15
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match12 Sep 2037
Ipswich Town left with the points after a 3‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match12 Sep 2037
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Bolton Wanderers and Ipswich Town, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad14 Sep 2037
The manager makes an example of Xavier Simons
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad14 Sep 2037
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Bolton Wanderers know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2037
Patrick Obermüller damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings17 Aug 2037
A brace, and Scott Twine takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Scott Twine provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match15 Aug 2037
9 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad17 Aug 2037
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market17 Aug 2037
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match15 Aug 2037
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad17 Aug 2037
Scott Twine was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match15 Aug 2037
4‑5 to West Ham United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match15 Aug 2037
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Jul 2037
Patrick Obermüller damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom27 Jul 2037
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Erwan Antonin falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Jul 2037
Patrick Obermüller damages knee ligaments — 57 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 57 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom6 Jul 2037
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom6 Jul 2037
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market6 Jul 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bolton Wanderers is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market6 Jul 2037
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bolton Wanderers, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Jul 2037
Scott Twine was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad6 Jul 2037
60 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad6 Jul 2037
Words at Bolton Wanderers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erwan Antonin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Boardroom6 Jul 2037
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Jun 2037
Patrick Obermüller damages knee ligaments — 71 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 71 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom22 Jun 2037
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bolton Wanderers is running low.
Squad22 Jun 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bolton Wanderers may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Jun 2037
Patrick Obermüller damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom8 Jun 2037
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market8 Jun 2037
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market8 Jun 2037
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Bolton Wanderers have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad8 Jun 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Scott Twine and Bolton Wanderers agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Jun 2037
Words at Bolton Wanderers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erwan Antonin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad8 Jun 2037
The manager has not finished forgetting Peter Butler's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market8 Jun 2037
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Xavier Simons signs something — a contract at Bolton Wanderers or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The terraces8 Jun 2037
Supporters make their feelings known about Peter Butler
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Bolton Wanderers would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.