Dougie Freedman is confident of backing from Whites hierarchy

Wanderers might be heading into tomorrow’s game at Bournemouth just a point above the Championship drop zone – but Dougie Freedman feels he will be given time to complete his rebuilding job.

There have been signs of restlessness among the Whites supporters after a poor start to the season, and though Freedman’s men head for the south coast unbeaten in five games, the lack of progress in the table is a still bone of contention.

A minority of fans are calling for change but after completing a year in charge at the Reebok last week, Freedman feels confident he has the full backing of club owner Eddie Davies and chairman Phil Gartside.

“I see too many managers bouncing in and out of jobs and there’s no real plan there” he said.

“From the very off I told the club this is my plan. And I know they are good for their word because years ago when they went up to the Premier League they had the same idea.

“It takes time to build that and these guys know it. That is why they are being patient and giving me time.

“I haven’t come across a single manager who can snap his fingers and turn things round.

“I feel this is a wonderful club, with great fans, but it needs to be built in the right way. I know the owners like that and that’s what they want to see.

“They don’t want any more big spending – they can’t afford any more big spending. They want players who want to come here and fight for the cause and then these fans can watch them turn into very good players.

“They are the same ones that turned up and watched the team while it was at the top and they are here right now.”

Freedman insists promotion can still be achieved and that his own target for the season has not changed despite taking just one win from the first 13 games.

“Anything is possible,” he said. “My aim is still to take this club into the top six.

“Of course it is getting harder and we need to string a few results together very soon. We need to be round and about that halfway mark by the turn of the year. We are capable of that.”

Freedman has no new injury problems going into the Bournemouth game and is looking to beef up his squad in the coming weeks with one or two new loan signings.

Regardless of the slow start, the Scot feels his squad will be better equipped this season to cope with the second half of the campaign that it was last year.

“Results at the end of last season were a culmination of training ground coaching and players coming into form,” he said.

“When we were asked a question at Leicester or Blackpool at home we didn’t answer it because the squad wasn’t ready for it. We fell at the last hurdle.

“That is not going to happen this time around.”

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Cheers for posting Karly. I was going to do this one, but remembered you like to post them here!

It sounds very much like DF has given himself the vote of confidence! Didn't OC do this just before he got canned?

karlypants wrote:

Freedman insists promotion can still be achieved and that his own target for the season has not changed despite taking just one win from the first 13 games.

“Anything is possible,” he said. “My aim is still to take this club into the top six.

“Of course it is getting harder and we need to string a few results together very soon. We need to be round and about that halfway mark by the turn of the year. We are capable of that.”

Regardless of the slow start, the Scot feels his squad will be better equipped this season to cope with the second half of the campaign that it was last year.

“Results at the end of last season were a culmination of training ground coaching and players coming into form,” he said.

“When we were asked a question at Leicester or Blackpool at home we didn’t answer it because the squad wasn’t ready for it. We fell at the last hurdle.

“That is not going to happen this time around.”

Let's bloody well hope so!

“When we were asked a question at Leicester or Blackpool at home we didn’t answer it because the squad wasn’t ready for it. We fell at the last hurdle.

“That is not going to happen this time around.”

Yeah, because we'll be nowhere near the feckin' play-offs this season. We'll be lucky to finish mid-table.

Talk's cheap and all this bollocks about building for the future and long-term goals is pir in the fucking sky.

We're rooted at the wrong end of the table, we look lethargic and devoid of creativity and ideas, DF keeps picking players who either can't do it or won't do it, his substitutions make Megson look like Pep Guardiola and there's obviously something very wrong.

Do us a favour, Dougie and ban yourself from giving these vacuous interviews before games until we start winning.

That way, even the most cynical of us (like me) might just back off and give you some breathing space.

More loan signings huh?

karlypants wrote:“I see too many managers bouncing in and out of jobs and there’s no real plan there” he said.

You have no plan you fucking bellend. Unless the plan is to be utter shite, then fair play to you.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

karlypants wrote:“I see too many managers bouncing in and out of jobs and there’s no real plan there” he said.

You have no plan you fucking bellend. Unless the plan is to be utter shite, then fair play to you.

That's not true. The plan has been leaked via the PR guff and it is to develop youngsters so that they are ready to make an impact in a couple of years time. In the intervening time the plan is to gradually develop the first team by moving on some of the crap players he's inherited and replacing them with whatever he can afford. Hopefully we'll manage to stay in the Championship during the transition.
It's a plan that will take at least a couple of years to come together, which is not to many fans liking but is nonetheless a plan and an affordable and realistic one at that.

wanderlust wrote:

Natasha Whittam wrote:

karlypants wrote:“I see too many managers bouncing in and out of jobs and there’s no real plan there” he said.

You have no plan you fucking bellend. Unless the plan is to be utter shite, then fair play to you.

That's not true. The plan has been leaked via the PR guff and it is to develop youngsters so that they are ready to make an impact in a couple of years time. In the intervening time the plan is to gradually develop the first team by moving on some of the crap players he's inherited and replacing them with whatever he can afford. Hopefully we'll manage to stay in the Championship during the transition.
It's a plan that will take at least a couple of years to come together, which is not to many fans liking but is nonetheless a plan and an affordable and realistic one at that.

Do you honestly believe the shite you have just typed???????

JAH wrote:

wanderlust wrote:

Natasha Whittam wrote:

karlypants wrote:“I see too many managers bouncing in and out of jobs and there’s no real plan there” he said.

You have no plan you fucking bellend. Unless the plan is to be utter shite, then fair play to you.

That's not true. The plan has been leaked via the PR guff and it is to develop youngsters so that they are ready to make an impact in a couple of years time. In the intervening time the plan is to gradually develop the first team by moving on some of the crap players he's inherited and replacing them with whatever he can afford. Hopefully we'll manage to stay in the Championship during the transition.
It's a plan that will take at least a couple of years to come together, which is not to many fans liking but is nonetheless a plan and an affordable and realistic one at that.

Do you honestly believe the shite you have just typed???????

Of course I do. Isn't it bleeding obvious that this is the plan?

I didn't say it was a good plan, or a plan that I like, or that it will work - just pointed out that this is the plan they've gone with - rightly or wrongly.

JAH wrote:Cheers for posting Karly. I was going to do this one, but remembered you like to post them here!

It sounds very much like DF has given himself the vote of confidence! Didn't OC do this just before he got canned?

Cheers JAH, I'm glad you and the rest of the community enjoy the articles I put up on here apart from one or two trolls (I'm sure you know who they are  ).

If none have been posted then feel free to post any articles you come across if you wish

Fair play to you karly for posting the Bolton News stories keep them coming.

As for the article itself, it's either DF calling for some more time from the board or the board really do have his back in this very bad run. I personally think he will be here until next season given what has been said from himself and Marc Iles.

If this winless run carries on until the end of the month I can't see him being backed for much longer.

If this is indeed the plan I'm sure Dougie and the club will understand if I keep my money in my pocket for a couple of years until these youngsters become the real deal and we become worth watching again. It ain't exactly cheap to go and watch the shite that Dougie's team are serving up at the moment.

Every plan we've had for the last five years has failed so why should this be any different whatever it is? Even without the kids he inherited one of the best squads in this division and look what he's done with it. The guys a clown and the only plan we should have is getting rid and starting again.

Breadman wrote:Talk's cheap and all this bollocks about building for the future and long-term goals is pir in the fucking sky.

We're rooted at the wrong end of the table, we look lethargic and devoid of creativity and ideas, DF keeps picking players who either can't do it or won't do it, his substitutions make Megson look like Pep Guardiola and there's obviously something very wrong.

Do us a favour, Dougie and ban yourself from giving these vacuous interviews before games until we start winning.

That way, even the most cynical of us (like me) might just back off and give you some breathing space.

What's wrong with having a long term plan? He's right that the club needs to be built in the right way and whilst immediate results are far from good nobody can deny that he's put an emphasis on buying players for the future that we haven't seen from a manager in my living memory. 

Don't understand your point about substitutions, apart from the timing I've no issue with them what would you prefer to have seen? I think unless the manager is blatantly hung ho with his subs ie put Cravies on fans immediately decide he's being negative. Which is ridiculous really, Eagles is no less attacking a player.

There's nothing vacuous about what he's said here, having a long term plan for the club is good sense and management.

Once again, if you find yourself getting annoyed reading the PR the club releases then just stop reading it. It's not (and never has been) an accurate reflection of what goes on/is being said behind the scenes, so don't get wound up taking it all literally and try reading between the lines a bit.

I've heard if he doesn't win today he's gone.

bwfc1874 wrote:

Breadman wrote:Talk's cheap and all this bollocks about building for the future and long-term goals is pir in the fucking sky.

We're rooted at the wrong end of the table, we look lethargic and devoid of creativity and ideas, DF keeps picking players who either can't do it or won't do it, his substitutions make Megson look like Pep Guardiola and there's obviously something very wrong.

Do us a favour, Dougie and ban yourself from giving these vacuous interviews before games until we start winning.

That way, even the most cynical of us (like me) might just back off and give you some breathing space.

What's wrong with having a long term plan? He's right that the club needs to be built in the right way and whilst immediate results are far from good nobody can deny that he's put an emphasis on buying players for the future that we haven't seen from a manager in my living memory. 

Don't understand your point about substitutions, apart from the timing I've no issue with them what would you prefer to have seen? I think unless the manager is blatantly hung ho with his subs ie put Cravies on fans immediately decide he's being negative. Which is ridiculous really, Eagles is no less attacking a player.

There's nothing vacuous about what he's said here, having a long term plan for the club is good sense and management.

Once again, if you find yourself getting annoyed reading the PR the club releases then just stop reading it. It's not (and never has been) an accurate reflection of what goes on/is being said behind the scenes, so don't get wound up taking it all literally and try reading between the lines a bit.

I think we all accept there needs to be a long term plan 74 and surely nobody can dispute that, but it's the here and now most are concerned with. So far his utilisation of both, players and tactics has proved questionable. Basically he's completely failing to get the best from what is arguably one of the strongest squads in this league and that is unacceptable. Even last season despite results the football was dire and even the most biased of fans couldn't argue we were very lucky in many games.

After the close season when he brought in his own players we expected an improvement but it's worse, much worse. Long term plans are fine but we need a short term plan to get us back into the PL, get some of the debt paid off and bring on quality young players not second raters. That he is failing to do and hasn't so far shown any ability to manage this club long or short term.

Completely agree with you that there needs to be short term results too Whites, and we definitely need to see a big improvement in that regard. Starting with a little less caution I think we can get more out of our attacking players and win games.

I don't agree with your comments about us being very lucky with your run of form last season, Dougie made us solid with the addition of Dawson and the players looked sharper and more motivated than I've seen them in the last 3 years, they really applied themselves and all looked up for the fight. What's happened this season is very worrying, and I can't get my head around it.

Who are the 'second raters' who you think have been brought in? I'd say his signings have been very good overall considering the budget. Whilst we're looking solid at the back again we're clearly short of creativity and the balance in midfield isn't right, this needs addressing ASAP.

We've got one of the top 10 best squads in the league, we're under performing without a doubt, but Im glad he's going to be given the backing to do so as I like his long term plan for the club, if he can continue to pick up other teams best youth and developing them, whilst shifting off the remaining 'deadwood' at the club then I think we'll have a brighter future ahead.

bwfc1874 wrote:What's wrong with having a long term plan? He's right that the club needs to be built in the right way and whilst immediate results are far from good nobody can deny that he's put an emphasis on buying players for the future that we haven't seen from a manager in my living memory. 

Don't understand your point about substitutions, apart from the timing I've no issue with them what would you prefer to have seen? I think unless the manager is blatantly hung ho with his subs ie put Cravies on fans immediately decide he's being negative. Which is ridiculous really, Eagles is no less attacking a player.

There's nothing vacuous about what he's said here, having a long term plan for the club is good sense and management.

Once again, if you find yourself getting annoyed reading the PR the club releases then just stop reading it. It's not (and never has been) an accurate reflection of what goes on/is being said behind the scenes, so don't get wound up taking it all literally and try reading between the lines a bit.

There's no doubt you need a long-term plan - for all his good points I don't think Fat Sam ever had a long-term plan other than to keep buying short-term "names". When the cash ran out Allardyce jumped ship, I'm sure he saw what was about to happen.

But no one gives a shite about the long-term if the here and now is absolute pants. Shit results can be tolerated for a short while if there are signs of potential or the shoots of a long-term plan. We have neither under Freedman.

I honestly believe this guy is more clueless than Coyle, and the longer we let him ruin this club the longer it will take to recover.

Natasha Whittam wrote: Shit results can be tolerated for a short while if there are signs of potential or the shoots of a long-term plan. We have neither under Freedman.

But undeniably we do have more of a long term plan under Dougie than we have under his predecessors. Hall, White, Wilkinson, Gregus, Bolger, Fraser, all highly rated youngsters who have come in and improved our development squad which was apparently poor prior to this. Whether or not any of them makes the grade remains to be seen, but going off reports their names seem to be amongst the brightest at the club now.

You're spot on that it's largely irrelevant if the short term success of the club isn't achieved, but there's clearly more of a long term strategy here than we've seen previously and for that I think the management team deserve credit.

I suspect Coyle and Megson had similar long-term plans but they weren't around long enough to see them through so we kept going back to square one.
Both Coyle and Megson were seen off because of short-term results (although Megson didn't exactly cover himself in glory on the PR front which accelerated his departure)
A long term plan is great, but only if it comes to fruition and with our club, managers have to produce results to have the opportunity to see the plan through.
So the dilemma the manager has is to strike the right balance between l-t aspirations and s-t results.
In Dougie's case, he's had a very small budget to get the balance right and unless results start to improve, his job - and the club's redevelopment progress - will be on the line.
Tough, tough job and I hope he makes it work as the last thing we need is to go backwards again. If we sink into the bottom three today, it will get very serious.