Coyle’s Bolton move is another footballing mystery – or is it?

January 6, 2010

One day perhaps we’ll understand how Wes Brown has amassed 21 England caps and maybe someone will eventually explain how Robinho is worth 35 million pounds but I don’t think I’ll ever comprehend the reason for Owen Coyle planning to ditch Burnley and go to Bolton Wanderers.

Coyle turned down the Celtic job last year because he wanted to go with Burnley into the Premier League and said only last week that he was “privileged to be building something special” at the club.

Yet within a heartbeat of Bolton sacking Gary Megson, wheels began turning to get Coyle in as his replacement.

As a former striker with Bolton in the early 1990s he said the club has a “special place in my heart” but it seems a bizarre move.

Both clubs are likely to spend the rest of the season fighting against relegation and while Bolton have probably got the deeper resources on and off the pitch, they are hardly Manchester United.

Coyle has built a reputation as an intelligent manager who develops passing teams who play the game “in the right way” and it was always unlikely to be too long before one of the league’s “bigger clubs” came calling.

Whether Bolton fit that bill is another matter – Burnley fans certainly don’t think so.

However, having said all that, if Bolton are offering Coyle a monster pay rise that Burnley – and even Celtic – can’t match, then who is to tell him to turn it down.

I’d wager the vast majority of fans who happily condemn players and managers for their lack of loyalty would switch their own jobs in an instant if a rival firm offered to double or triple their salary.

PHOTO: Burnley coach Owen Coyle reacts after their English Premier League soccer match against Everton in Burnley August 23, 2009. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis

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