League 1 - Bolton, Bury & Coventry

[Marked Ox]

Wow, the Bury chairman is a right snake oil salesman. What c**t. I wouldn’t believe it was daylight at midday if he told me.
If players are not getting paid by clubs, the PFA should be stepping in and doing more.
I really feel for Dawson, two months money in 6 months, that is a breach of his contract, players should have the ability to walk away with the PFA supporting them.
Dale is a lying piece of s**t, another con man trying it on, who was sanctioned by the EFL who sit back and enjoy their large salaries.

Agreed on Dale.

Players can walk away as a fair few Bolton players have given their 14 day notice and walked away with the latest 2 being Oztumer and Magennis.

 

[Marked Ox]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1162330968604237824

Some more of the programme with Steve Dale and Stephen Dawson on it. Steve Dale's comments on it are utterly outrageous in his claims about Dawson and his wages.

 

[Cass63]

Wow, the Bury chairman is a right snake oil salesman. What c**t. I wouldn’t believe it was daylight at midday if he told me.
If players are not getting paid by clubs, the PFA should be stepping in and doing more.
I really feel for Dawson, two months money in 6 months, that is a breach of his contract, players should have the ability to walk away with the PFA supporting them.
Dale is a lying piece of s**t, another con man trying it on, who was sanctioned by the EFL who sit back and enjoy their large salaries.

Don’t think it was sanctioned by the EFL though was it? That seems to be one of the problems.

 

[Wallop]

Don’t think it was sanctioned by the EFL though was it? That seems to be one of the problems.

Indeed but how then did Bury manage to continue to play in the EFL last season? What teeth do the EFL have in such a scenario, if none then the much ridiculed fit and proper person test is worse than we thought.

 

[West Oxon U’s]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1162756553772064776

 

[oxford1985]

Bolton have called tomorrows game off them selves - siting player safety (players to young and mental/physical health) https://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/2019/au...on-joint-administrator-for-bolton-wanderers3/

interesting one, young players getting a chance to shine and show talent..

should the game not be "forfeited" seeing as they already played games with kids and given unfair advantage to teams like Tranemere.

 

[Grumpy Git]

Both BWFC and Bury have failed to put out competitive sides, I don’t class 15 youngsters in a team sheet of 18 as a competitive. It’s time to end this debacle and for the EFL to sit down and work out what they are going to do when the next side collapses.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

I have some sympathy with the administrator's position on this. But (again) it really would have been better if Bolton had been treated the same as Bury - not allowed to start the season until there was every chance they'd be able to complete it. Now you have matches that have been played by a set of (gallant but underqualified) youth players and a match that has been called off by the club themselves on the Bolton side and a whole load of postponed games on the Bury side. It's a situation that has been mishandled by the EFL IMO.

 

[Wallop]

Fair play to them putting the welfare of their younger players first. I really hope both clubs can get out of this but Bury look to be gone and Bolton don't appear to be making any real progress even with the court order last week slightly in their favour.

 

[warksox]

The administrators have screwed this up spectacularly.
They chose FV as preferred bidder who clearly don’t have the funds to complete the deal without the hotel.
Despite there apparently being another potential bidder waiting in the wings with far more money.
They have now incurred a further points penalty for failing to play tomorrow, on top of the penalty they haven’t yet received for Brentford last season. Should be at least a further 2 x -9 in addition to the -12 already.
So a total penalty of at least -30 will all but guarantee their relegation even if the takeover gets completed in the coming weeks.

 

[AbbeyOx]

if it comes down to goal difference for a team getting promoted and they played the weak Bolton side i can see it getting messier than it is now

 

[Grumpy Git]

if it comes down to goal difference for a team getting promoted and they played the weak Bolton side i can see it getting messier than it is now

Yes, this is the reason that their results should be voided and both teams kicked out of the league.

 

[tonyw]

Here's what I'm idling wondering - do the EFL have to throw Bolton & Bury out of the league?

Could they not say 'OK, you both have serious financial problems so we're going to cancel/wipe all your fixtures for this season - but if you can prove you've sorted out your ownership structure and have your finances in order by the end of this season (i.e. Sunday 3rd May - the day we're supposed to be playing Bolton!), you can play next season in League Two'?

Obviously they should never have allowed Bury to be promoted last season/should have properly applied the fit & proper persons' test to their ownership/shouldn't have let this farcical start to the season happen.

But given the extraordinary situation those past mistakes have landed them in - would that not be a possible solution?

I don't really see who get's hurt by that......maybe whoever finishes in the bottom two of League Two, and doesn't get a relegation reprieve - but if you finish in the bottom two of league two, you don't deserve a relegation reprieve...….

 

[frenchconnection]

not in another week or whatever rubbish the efl keeps coming up with....put em out of their misery tonight

 

[Marked Ox]

Both BWFC and Bury have failed to put out competitive sides, I don’t class 15 youngsters in a team sheet of 18 as a competitive. It’s time to end this debacle and for the EFL to sit down and work out what they are going to do when the next side collapses.

My take on what should happen:

If in administration over the summer then they shouldn't be allowed to start the season until out of administration. They have 1 week into the season (so a little leeway) to be out of administration to be able to start the season, if not, they are thrown out of the Football League. This means there will be minimal fixture disruption whilst being seen to support their members.

If in a position similar to Bury (ie. Wages not paid, tax debts not paid etc) at the end of a season unless it is sorted out by the end of the play offs, they aren't allowed to be promoted. Whether a 'relegated' team stays up or the highest team in the promotion places not promoted replaces them is a different discussion.

 

[Sussexox]

This saga is starting to compromise the League.
I can see a scenario where this goes on past the Transfer window. The EFL will then give both teams dispensation to sign who they like. You can then imagine players who were holding out for better deals but not finding a club queuing up to join them. That could mean some decent players joining these clubs.
It could be that Bolton have realised this and rather than take another beating are holding out until their situation improves.
I accept that the EFL has nothing in place (other than a points deduction) to deal with this type of situation and no one wants to see established football clubs like these two go to the wall, but the league has been compromised and action needs to be taken now.
Perhaps a solution could be that both clubs are suspended for this season and their records expunged. They are then given a place in Div 2 next year with only two going down from Div 1 this season. It will give the clubs time to sort themselves out and satisfy the EFL they can continue. It will also prevent this seasons Div 1 from dividing into those who played Bolton (and possibly Bury) before they were strengthened and those who played them afterwards.

 

[Marked Ox]

not in another week or whatever rubbish the efl keeps coming up with....put em out of their misery tonight

Bury do have a hard deadline from what I've read, 23rd iirc.

 

[tonyw]

I can see a scenario where this goes on past the Transfer window. The EFL will then give both teams dispensation to sign who they like. You can then imagine players who were holding out for better deals but not finding a club queuing up to join them. That could mean some decent players joining these clubs.

I don't think they would need special dispensation - the transfer window only applies to actual transfers.

If a player's registration isn't held by another club, I believe they're free to move to whoever they want, whenever they want (as long as they haven't already played for two other clubs in the same season).

That's how Charlton were free to sign Otzumer even after the Championship transfer deadline had passed.


So if Bolton's takeover drags on past the deadline (and the EFL haven't thrown them out by then), then they'll be able to sign a squad of senior players - but only from the pool of players that are currently out of work. No transfers, or free signings from other clubs or loan deals.

 

[holdsteady]

You can’t just call a game off like that, joke situation, are they not going to play until their injured players are fit? Till the senior players are willing to play? Till the takeover happens? Or will they just pick and choose till this situation is sorted out one way or another?

Both Bury and Bolton should be removed from the division now, all results scrapped, then they should be given a date to get sorted for next season in league 2 (with points deductions again), if they can’t prove they can be ready for the start of next season by say new year then promotion and relegation should be changed and they should be kicked out of the football league entirely.

 

[holdsteady]

I don't think they would need special dispensation - the transfer window only applies to actual transfers.

If a player's registration isn't held by another club, I believe they're free to move to whoever they want, whenever they want (as long as they haven't already played for two other clubs in the same season).

That's how Charlton were free to sign Otzumer even after the Championship transfer deadline had passed.


So if Bolton's takeover drags on past the deadline (and the EFL haven't thrown them out by then), then they'll be able to sign a squad of senior players - but only from the pool of players that are currently out of work. No transfers, or free signings from other clubs or loan deals.

I think I read that Bolton (don’t know about Bury) will be under some sort of transfer embargo where they can only pay a thousand pounds a week to any signings, not certain how that will work if a new owner comes in but they may well keep that in place for a bit, can’t see them bringing in any good league one players for that.