ARCHIVE: Colin Todd Debate
As the autumnal leaves blew around the car park at the Reebok Stadium and with the millennium celebrations almost upon us, Colin Todd decided it was time to call it a day and resigned from his post. He’d been Wanderers manager since mid 1995 after being assistant/coach for many more seasons before that under Bruce Rioch.
As the number two, he’d seen Bolton promoted through two divisions, reach a major cup final and embark on some mazy never-to-be-forgotten F.A. Cup runs. As manager he was to witness two relegations from the Premier League, one epic promotion to the Premier League and the heartbreak of a play-off final defeat. A pretty eventful tenure it has to be said.
White Love regulars back in 1999/2000 – Paul Hanley, Unknown Wanderer and Chris Barnes all had their say on Toddy’s departure and contribution to the club we all know and love.
Four Cough Todd
The County Ground in Wiltshire probably couldn’t be farther from the Reebok Stadium in footballing terms. However, their new manager still makes PAUL HANLEY foam at the mouth.
Those of you familiar with my endless ramblings in this esteemed publication will no doubt be aware of my almost psychotic aversion to one ex-manager of our beloved football club. Yes, good old Colin Todd, the man who, in my opinion, is virtually single handedly responsible for the financial mess we currently find ourselves in.
Almost twelve months after that golden day when he packed his lack of tactical knowledge into his bags and fucked off over the horizon, he still has me foaming at the mouth. And it doesn’t help when he periodically gives us his warped opinions on the situation at the Reebok. Going off his spoutings in recent times, it appears Mr. Todd is still living in the same cloud cuckoo land that led him, at Bolton, to believe tall central defenders and midfielders who could at least attempt to tackle were an unnecessary part of the game.
The first Todd outburst came on the day of his long awaited resignation. On that day, as you no doubt remember, Per Frandsen was sold. That gave Colin the Cock the excuse to resign. His reason? Because Bolton couldn’t match his ambitions any more. No, that’s right. And why couldn’t they match your ambitions Todd? Because you spent £12 million on a team which should have kept us in the Premier only for a series of blindingly stupid decisions on your part to cost us roughly ten points. Then, when we needed to bounce back at the first attempt to keep ourselves on a financial even keel, you Mr. Todd, fucked it up big style once more. The second best team in the First Division in 1998/99 only finished sixth because you failed to show any appreciation that a team needs to be able to defend as well as attack. How many 2-2 and 3-3 draws did we have that season Todd? Anyway, that’s all old ground and I’ve said it all before. Suffice to say Big Sam got us into 6th place a year later with £3.35 million worth of talent ripped from the squad (Frandsen, Cox and Todd) and hardly any cash to replace them. He did it because he got the defence to defend and the midfield to do its job. He did it because he knows what it takes.
Meanwhile, Mr Todd – the man whose ambitions Bolton Wanderers could no longer match - couldn’t find alternative employment for love nor money. He probably has some weird explanation for this fact. But the real reason for his tortuous period in the dole queue was that everybody knew he was (is) a wanker. Everybody that is except the chairman of Swindon Town, where Todd now resides. So, we couldn’t match your ambition but virtually bankrupt Swindon can, is that it Todd? Bolton couldn’t afford to give you millions to spend on Scandinavians who couldn’t challenge our cat for a ball of wool, but Swindon can – is that it??
I don’t think so numb nuts.
Anyway, we’ve got Frandsen back now. And that sparked the most recent outburst from dickbrains of Wiltshire. Apparently the board has gone against its principles in re-signing the Dane. EH??? How so? In September last year we were around £20 million in debt and not too far away from going bust. We’ve now sold Burnden, Cox, Andy Todd, Gudjohnsen and Jensen for around £15 million. The only reason we could afford to get Frandsen back was because we’d raised so much cash to wipe out the debts. As far as I’m concerned the fact that Mr. Gartside is willing to spend £1.625 million on Frandsen rather than using that cash to bring us closer to being debt free indicates a good balance between ambition on the pitch and prudence off it. Whatever way you slice it, this club has no future until the debts have gone – and little future if it doesn’t invest at least some money in new talent. And that is exactly what has happened. And anyway, where did the debts come from? They came from placing too much trust in a manager who saddled us with a Premiership wage bill and didn’t keep us there – and then perpetrated the crime by keeping that wage bill for a year in Division One, only to fuck up what should have been a sure fire promotion. OK, that’s not the whole story, because the Burnden Park business left a black hole in the finances too. But we could have coped with that had we stopped up. Which if we’d had Big Sam in charge three years ago we would have done.
Anyway I’ve written endlessly here, when I could have summed up what I wanted to say in one sentence. Shut your fucking neck Todd. You are a madman and a failure whose beautiful football wet dream has left a massive scar on Bolton Wanderers Football Club. May you rot in hell. Viva Sam Allardyce.
What Did The Romans Ever Do For Us?
Once you find a scapegoat for something it can be really difficult to see any other answer to the problem, this I believe is the case of Paul Hanley and his almost “psychotic aversion to Colin Todd”, his words not mine. UNKNOWN WANDERER replies.
Why is it that Bruce Rioch is held in such high esteem with Bolton fans and Colin Todd is loathed. At the final whistle of the play off final Rioch was interviewed on the pitch, the joy and relief was clear for everyone to see in his beaming smile, he answered a few questions and what happened next in my mind undid everything that Rioch had achieved in the previous seasons. The interviewer asked him “will you be manager of Bolton next season?” and Rioch just turned and ran away and in so doing he had turned his back on the club and wasn’t man enough to say it how it was. If he wanted to leave he should have resigned in the week following the play off win, but no he let it drag on and by the time he went to Arsenal the Wanderers were left with an impossible task of appointing a new manager.
Rioch wanted Todd to go with him to Arsenal but the much loathed Todd said no and stuck by the Wanderers, loyalty that Rioch can only marvel at. Experienced Rioch watchers would have noted that he was doomed to failure at Arsenal, why? Because Todd was not his right hand man. Rioch has never achieved anything in management without Todd as his number two, Q.P.R., Norwich and Millwall will all testify to that, and on the two occasions that Todd has superseded his old boss he has gone on to better the achievements of his old boss, those two clubs being Middlesbrough and Bolton. Does Paul Hanley and the rest of the Todd’s detractors not remember the record breaking season, the championship, goals galore the 6-1 hammering of Spurs, 7-0 against Swindon, 6-2 against Luton. This was Todd’s team playing breathtaking football, all this after he had been barracked at Port Vale on the opening day of the season and what was his crime? Well he sold for a three million pound profit a lunatic Serb and signed, for a quarter of the money we’d paid for Curcic, Per Frandsen. Have we forgotten that Todd improved nearly every position in the team? Was it not Todd who turned an ineffective wide midfielder Alan Thompson into, when he decided he wanted to leave the club, a much sort after signature and into a £3.8 million profit for the club? Was it not Todd who took a chance on an Icelandic centre forward for whom he paid a miserly £100,000, only for Gunnar’s head to grow too big, his eventual sale netting the club a £1.9 million profit? Was it not Todd who took a chance on Eidur Gudjohnsen and Claus Jensen these two players swelling the clubs coffers by some £8 million? Put all this together, then add the £3 million profit on Nathan Blake and the estimated £10 million that promotion by Todd’s team brought into the club. This roughly amounts to £30 million. Take away the £12 million Todd paid trying to stay in the Prem, this still leaves a profit of £18 million. So what part of the current financial crisis is Colin Todd responsible for?
I did not agree with all Colin Todd’s tactical decisions, I did suffer at Sheffield Wednesday like the rest of you, but on the whole I thought we were unlucky to go down. You only have to look at Bradford’s modest total of 33 points to see how unlucky we were, no team have been relegated with as many points as we had. Todd’s team at their best would have played Rioch’s team off the park, you could say that Rioch didn’t have the money that Todd was afforded but Rioch ran away from the club both physically and metaphorically. The most limp of reasons was offered up by Rioch “its for family reasons more than anything, they are based down south”. You can’t argue with a family man can you, so tell me Rioch what are you doing at Wigan? Rioch would be hard pressed to fail at Wigan after all they are the richest club in the division, and without Todd by his side it will be a first.
As I have already said I don’t agree with everything Todd did but to blame a man that produced one of the best footballing teams to represent this club for all its existing problems is indeed psychotic and bares no relation to rational thought. If Paul Hanley wants somebody to blame for the clubs current cash crisis, he should look no further than the board who built the Reebok and didn’t know what to do with it, he should then look at the empty seats that dominate the stadium and point the finger at the fickle Wanderers supporters who won’t come and back their team. The present board seem to have much more business sense, they seem to be willing and able to promote the club to the people of Bolton and I firmly believe that with this board in charge the club will soon be on an even keel, the much criticised hotel will bring in much needed revenue. It is easy to blame one person when things go wrong, I think we can all be guilty of this sometimes but we should try to look at the bigger picture.
I don’t know Paul Hanley we have never actually met, the one thing we do have in common is our love of the Whites and that we contribute to this fanzine, it is in no way meant to be a personal slight on Paul Hanley I just thought his article in the last issue represented everything that irritates me about the anti-Todd brigade.
Bitter Sweet Symphony
Our second helping of sympathy and praise for Colin Todd from regular CHRIS BARNES.
Colin Todd has been strongly berated through the pages of White Love and blamed for throwing away our best chance of making it in the Premier League and also from our current predicaments.
Yes I am a supporter of Colin Todd, I believe you would struggle to find a Division One team that played better football than we did in the 1996/97 season in the last two decades.
Managers or coaches who place an emphasis on attack are often viewed as odd balls, freaks whose tenancies are short lived. Ardiles at Spurs and Keegan at Newcastle bare testimony to that bet. But ask any fan if they’d rather see a defensively minded 1-0 win or an exciting 3-2 win and you know what the answer will be.
Last season the atmosphere in the Reebok was transformed for one single match, the exciting 3-2 win against Notts Forest. I think that tells its own story.
Under Colin Todd the emphasis on attack was there for all to see, particularly in the First Division Championship season. The one thing about Todd was that he certainly had an eye for strikers; during his reign we had McGinlay, Blake, Gunnlaugsson and Gudjohnsen never mind Bob Taylor), Bo Hansen and Holdsworth. With that kind of ability available up front you can see why he chose to put his emphasis on out-scoring the opposition.
The reality is though that most fans prefer to watch a winning team than one that throws away two goal leads. Todd to my mind made errors and predominantly these centred on defensive tactics and selections. I wouldn’t apply the same criticism up front however. I think he should be applauded for encouraging his teams to play football in a way that since he left has only been seen spasmodically. Big Sam has done wonders for our defence and it bodes the question what could the two of them have achieved in partnership at the Reebok?
Personally I hope Colin Todd does well at Swindon Town, I’m not sure they can ever “match his ambitions” but I hope he can be successful once again.
To those fans who seem intent on deriding all he did during his tenure at Bolton I would ask them to remember what he did achieve. We can all be beaten with the branch of our failures but personally I will always look back on the 1996/97 season as one of those that comes about once every blue moon and at least for that I can be grateful.
Good luck Colin.
First published in issues 31 and 32 of White Love in autumn 1999.