bradley headstone
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Posted: January 13th 2010
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The (possibly self-styled) ginger Mourinho, Gary Megson, has parted company with Bolton Wanderers. I say self-styled because the handful of Bolton fans that were happy to use the epithet at the beginning of his deeply unpopular reign had stopped pretty much once the sound had faded from their lips.
Megson does have some traits in common with the great Jose. His powers of self-belief and wilfulness must be superhuman. Deeply unpopular in football circles, Megson inspired a reaction in Lancashire that had last been witnessed in the days when witches were regularly used as fuel in those parts.
Bolton are not alone in turning against a manager, though rarely does one inspire a campaign before he’s through a door, but more often it’s a wider campaign that sees a manager become a focal point for a protest.
So why does Megson attract such a strong reaction. I don’t want him anywhere near my team, (although statistically speaking he stands a very good chance of rocking up as the boss any time soon) but I don’t know why.
Megson is from a football family, his dad, Don had a decent career and brother Neil was also a pro. He had a reasonable career, establishing himself as a good journeyman player who did a decent job at most of his clubs. Combative yes, but nothing to inspire the feelings that he attracts.
His managerial career has been relatively successful; he has won promotions and turned round some difficult situations. But peppering his record are a number of public spats and boardroom rifts that perhaps give us a clue to his reputation. He does seem prone to falling into arguments with those who wield the axe.
That doesn’t really explain why fans react so strongly. His experience at Bolton was mirrored at Forest where you’d have thought anyone replacing the hapless and pointless Joe Kinnear would be welcomed. Not so and in general Megson appears saddled with a reputation of playing a workaday long ball game. This may or may not be true. I suspect that teams like Bolton will always have to be more direct that one or two of their more illustrious northern brethren, for Megson it was a nail right through the middle of his coffin.
The Bolton board showed more patience than is usual these days. He lasted on 6 months at Forest so his two years at Bolton can be considered remarkable. You can also argue that his record was pretty good. Keeping Bolton in the league for one and some notable moments to savour. In the end I think it was the empty seats that spoke loudest.
Most Bolton fans didn’t bother to reject Megson. They just stopped bothering full stop. Fewer and fewer made the journey to the Reebok stadium and while a good chairman can turn a strategically deaf ear to ranting fans he can’t fail but listen to a falling bank balance. Megson needed more than creditable draws against fellow relegation candidates.
Managers often react to the sack by bemoaning the lack of quality in a squad and the lack of finance to improve it. You can argue that Megson had both. He inherited a squad containing Jusi Jaaskeleinen, Ricardo Gardner, Matthew Taylor, Gary Cahill, Kevin Davis, El Hadj Diouf etc, not everyone’s cup of tea maybe, but something to work with you’d think. To this he added the likes of ‘young Viera’ Fabrice Muamba, Sean Davis, Johann Elmander and Danny Shittu. Enough there you would think to establish them as a decent mid-table outfit.
Maybe this decent crop of players increased everyone’s expectations; maybe that was Megson’s eventual undoing. Maybe that’s why he started dismantling this solid base, Diouf was out and Shittu seriously undermined, was that why he inspired such vitriol.
It could of course be that he was ginger!