Guess who's a hit in Turkey

It saddens me that the novelty of being a Bolton Wanderers fan in Turkey is no longer that we were once proud owners of the great Tuncay Sanli, but that we are the club that were robbed by Turkish club Galatasaray of Johan Elmander. He is simply worshipped over here to the point that I now have an additional ten friends on Facebook simply for supporting his former employers.

Is being a free transfer as opposed to a record-breaking signing helping him out or was the Premiership too big for him and he's now found his comfort zone again?

A bit of both, in my opinion.

Could be that he was played out of position for three years by the master strategists, Megson and Coyle.

No, Sluffy. He was played up front for most of the time. He is a forward.

I must have imagined him playing the target man in Megson's 4-5-1's or centre midfield by Coyle then.

He's naturally a second striker as in playing deeper behind a lead striker.

Surprisingly just because someone is a professional footballer doesn't necessarily mean that they can play well in any position they are told to play in.

No, you didn't imagine it, there was a time where he was played up front on his own by Megson and also a period where he was played in central midfield by Coyle.

My only issue with what you're saying, is that he is a forward who was played as a forward for most of the time, and he was a complete flop.

He was a complete flop I totally agree but maybe that was because he was being played as a square peg in a round hole?

If his game is about making the killer pass to his striking partner then he isn't going to shine quite so brightly if he's asked instead to win headers and hold up the ball whilst the midfield finally rushes up the field to him.

I bet he's not playing the holding striker role at Galatasaray!

Just my view on things.

Yeah, I think we're slightly at cross purposes here. I consider him to have been played 'in position' most of the time whereas you're referring more to his 'role', I think.

Maybe he wasn't suited to the PL, maybe he wasn't suited to being in an average team, or playing alongside Kevin Davies. Or as he has said, he didn't like ginger Gary shouting at him in training.

Sluffy wrote:Could be that he was played out of position for three years by the master strategists, Megson and Coyle.

I'm sick of this excuse. If he was a decent player he'd have scored all those sitters he missed, regardless of his position.

Does being played out of position stop you beating the keeper from 6 yards out? Does it stop you passing to a white shirt? Does it stop you from controlling a simple pass? The answer is no. Class will always rise to the top.

The guy was shite, plain and simple. I'd score goals in the Turkish league.

Nat said The guy was shite, plain and simple. I'd score goals in the Turkish league.

Even so, he is now playing well, so what has made the difference, after all, he's the same player ?

gloswhite wrote:

Even so, he is now playing well, so what has made the difference, after all, he's the same player ?

In a sub-standard league, similar to our League 1.

Fair point. Also, even though he's in his national team, he did seem to be perform much as he did when he played for us.

He was inconsistent, and we overpaid, wildly.

but i don't think he is half as "shit" as most Bolton fans say, most IMO, judge him on his price tag rather than his actual performances (though I'm sure people will take issue with that you only need read twitter to see it's true)

Hipster_Nebula wrote:He was inconsistent, and we overpaid, wildly.

but i don't think he is half as "shit" as most Bolton fans say, most IMO, judge him on his price tag rather than his actual performances (though I'm sure people will take issue with that you only need read twitter to see it's true)

So you don't take into account the price of a player? What a stupid idea. He was an £8-£11m player depending on who you listen to so he has to perform like one. He took the fat signing on fee that came with it.

If you bought a Ferrari would you expect it to perform like a Ford Focus?

Natasha Whittam wrote:If you bought a Ferrari would you expect it to perform like a Ford Focus?

What it doesn't? right thats it, I am taking mine back and asking for a refund.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:He was inconsistent, and we overpaid, wildly.

but i don't think he is half as "shit" as most Bolton fans say, most IMO, judge him on his price tag rather than his actual performances (though I'm sure people will take issue with that you only need read twitter to see it's true)

So you don't take into account the price of a player? What a stupid idea. He was an £8-£11m player depending on who you listen to so he has to perform like one. He took the fat signing on fee that came with it.

If you bought a Ferrari would you expect it to perform like a Ford Focus?

the analogy doesn't work Nat. The real analogy is if i bought a Ford Focus for the price of a Ferrari and expected it to go 180mph and it didn't then cried about it.

thats what happened with Elmander. We bought an average player for well over his value (not his fault btw) and he performed as best he could - average.

He was shit at the Euros

Lofty_Love wrote:He was shit at the Euros

I agree Elmander was shit at the Euros' which actually surprised me, because when he tried to play for Bolton his international games were at least 100% better!