Isn't converting the debt to equity also an option, assuming the owners were inclined?

I reckon that's what Eddie Davies will choose to do at Bolton - although I have no evidence whatsoever to back that up. I wish I had so much money that £151 million didn't matter!

I can't see it being on the Venky's list of options though.

Zulu,around some 60 Million in debt according to official club figures and losing around 2 Million a MONTH is most peoples estimate.

Just have a bad feeling this is only the calm before the storm for both clubs.

I agree with you. Not just Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers either.

Higher wage bill than Rovers ? Hell where is it all going ?

It's being @#/? up the wall from what I can see. The legacy of Coyle - an expensive error if ever I saw one.

Bolton Wanderers have the highest wage bill outside the Premier League. Being cut dramatically as we speak.

The owner, Eddie Davies, is owed £151 million of that debt - which is interest free allegedly. So it's not as bad as it would first appear. Not good though! A lot of clubs in England in similar circumstances. For instance, Blackburn Rovers are £60 million in debt and reportedly losing £2 million a month! Anyone confirm that?

Forget the local rivalries. The game is knackered.

Incidentally, £151 million will buy you a lot of electric kettle elements!

RIP

RIP Kelbo from a Bowtener.

Just announced on SSN that the lad has died. Very very sad, whatever the circumstances.

RIP.

all west ham will get will be a suspended punishment of some sort and a warning to their future behaviour

And if had been you, or us, the club would have already been banned from the competition. If they can get away with the Tevez affair so lightly then they'll waltz away from this one.

Mind you, they did win the World Cup don't cha know?

Do we think it because we're 'diehard' or because we've sat through every minute of every game with him in charge, we've witnessed his attempts at sorting things and it was clear to all of us 'diehards' that he didn't have a clue how to operate at a bigger club with a bigger budget and bigger expectations, now I know being a Bolton fan you probably don't have very high expectations so you were happy to put up with some of the dullest football known to man but you can't blame other clubs for not wanting to sit through similar.

In some ways I hope Allardyce does take the Blackburn job, not just so we can shift the dross like Alan Smith but so people can see for themselves what a useless fat ###### he is rather than playing the delusional Geordie's card.

It's not a card. You're all delusional. Just learn to live with it.

allardyce deserved th bullet on his transfer dealings alone that beye fella is average at best but looks like a world beater compared to the other shiite he bought! A decent manager would'nt saddle himsellf with mercenaries like viduka and smith on their wages for long contracts, that alone is gonna screw the club for years to come whoever takes over. When newcastle eventually get a manager with sense the likes of those 2 will never play again and will be to them what ostenstad was to us and bogarde was to chelsea! for gods sake no to the fat crook!

I think we're all looking forward to that - and they're a very big club you know. They deserve success.

I am going to have to bite here. Yes, Allardyce was sacked in 11th place, and we finished 12th.

What that doesn't consider however was that game by game the team had overall picked up worse results than the corresponding fixtures the previous season (for instance we won away at Blackburn the previous season, but lost under Allardyce), and that previous season we had finished 5 points clear of relegation. Immediately after Allardyce was sacked, we had to play 7 games against the top 7 broken up by just one game in the FA Cup and one game against Bolton. We were already in a bad run and we deserved to lose as opposed to being unlucky. Morale was low, and their was a player mutiny started by less rotten players.

Keegan can't work miracles, and that horrific run continued, but he never lost to any team outside the top 7 (and you may or may not agree that you guys would have been lucky with a draw, let alone a win at SJP). However, once the tricky games were over, Keegan brought back confidence by getting the players to play football and attack the opposition. Allardyce would have shut up shop just like he tried to play for a goalless draw at Derby and lost. That would have done nothing for the players, and we could have quite easily got relegated.

Shock! Barcodes fan claims Keegan cannot work miracles.

I thought you would have done a better job of pulling his post apart since you blamed it all on Newcastle for screwing it all up.

Step back from appointing your new manager for a minute. Does anyone, or at least anyone who isn't a blind Magpie diehard, really believe that Newcastle United handled the thing well? They had been tracking Allardyce for two years and finally got their man. He went into a club that was rotten to the core (still is) and got blown away in a matter of months. If they had given him time I believe he would have sorted the club out. We will never know.

I don't want to spend any time in pulling his post apart. As I said elsewhere I am neither an apologist or a defender of Allardyce. The man's a tosser. But he is a very good manager and, if appointed and given time, he will do a very good job for Blackburn. As will Ince.

I posted this in another thread, but I feel it needs repeating as many from the outside seem to think that Allardyce's failure at Newcastle was Newcastle's fault. It was 100% Allardyce's fault:

Good job they've got Keegan then! He'll make them break into the top four - after all they're a very big club.

Actually it was jim who wrote the "I would prefer McClaren to Allardyce" tosh .

So much for sanity .............

I hadn't spotted that. Ho hum!

My evil side hopes you get McLaren, by the way. (That's local rivalry for you!)

So you would rather watch a losing team than a winning one ? Bizarre.

The notion that all games involving Bolton under Allardyce were "boring" or involed "one-dimensional" football is nonsense too. I recall plenty of exciting games on MoD involving the Trotters under Allardyce, and they usually ended with victory for Bolton too.

Rovers under Allardyce would be no more "boring" or tactically sterile than they were under Hughes; they would be hard to beat and they would continue to get up the noses of the southern media and the likes of Wenger and Benitez. Good. Just how I like it.

Not wishing to intrude too much on your private angst over the appointment of Thunder Thigh's successor, but I have read some amazing comments in this thread. None more baffling than "I would prefer McLaren to Allardyce" or some such tosh. I then read jim mk2's comments above and was thankful for some sanity.

I am not an Allardyce apologist or supporter by any stretch of the imagination. He shat on my club regally when he left and did his utmost to take away or unsettle players and staff at that time. (But Hughesy will probably try that on with you. It's the way of the world sadly.) But please believe me, Allardyce is a very good manager and, were he to get the job at Blackburn, he would do a good job for you.

In the time he managed Bolton we saw our share of long ball football. That's the sort of football that's called "direct" or "route 1" when practised by clubs such as Liverpool or Chelsea - but that's different somehow. We're a long ball team, you see. Just like Rovers are a brawling bunch of alehouse thugs. (You're not - but hey, stereotypes sell newspapers and keep lazy media commentators in jobs and on sofas!) Players like Hierro, Okocha, Djorkaeff, Campo, Anelka and, dare I say it, Djiouf have all brought memorable footballing moments to my club in recent years. World Cup Winners, European Nations Winners and Champions League Winners, all brought by the lure of long ball football at little old Bolton.? Not really.

Newcastle screwed the relationship up, not Allardyce. Keegan is an accident waiting to happen, as his successor will be too. I smiled when they buggered it up and serves Sam right! He can still manage though.

Having said that, I think Incey could be a good boss for you too. But McLaren.... Lordy!

Take this as sour grapes if you like, although it isn't. I think we had a lucky escape with Dunny. He's not set the heather on fire since his return to Ewood Park (although he played well against us).

I always thought that he was a player who relied on pace, and from what I've seen he's lost a yard. That's crucial in this league. In the forthcoming pre-season he may re-discover that yard, but I doubt it.

Sorry, I can't take Jeff Winter seriously, no matter how accurate his comments are on this issue. The man is a prick.

Bill "Selwyn Froggitt" Maynard could often be seen at Filbert Street and latterly the Crispdome, watching his favourite team Leicester City until his ill health started around 2003. I understand that he has had a series of strokes.

Dunny plays a mean six-fingered banjo so he'll slot straight back in.

The hills have eyes!

.. and I'm your 5,000th member. So a little respect is called for before you all start to climb into me

I know when i found that thread i was going to join the messageboard and ask what exactly made them a bigger club than us ??

We're looking forward to welcoming you!

1. Attendances - Just about but there are an extra 100,000 or so living in Notlob.

A bit more than "just about" I think!

2. League position - This season but not last.

And the season before? And the season before that?

3. History - We have won the League and FA Cup more times than them.

Well, you've won the FA Cup six times and we've won it four times. Five of your wins were in the 1800's though. I'll give you the league having said that!

4. Recent History - No comparison winning the league and a domestic cup in the last 12 years eclipses there's.

I'll give you that one too! Apart from the fact that the word you are looking for is "theirs"

And im sure that if we went in for a player and they did (not counting Dunny) we have the higher profile within the game.

Unless it's Kevin Davies who's quite happy to have had his career saved after you lot had meddled with it!