PHIL THE BANGER RACER NEEDS A TURBO
WHETHER Bolton start next season in the Championship or not, their manager, Phil Parkinson, certainly should.
The 50-year-old has basically been asked to race the Monaco Grand Prix in a Ford Fiesta and, somehow, isn’t last.
In June 2016, Parkinson inherited a club in financial disarray. He won promotion to the Championship, despite a distracting ownership wrangle and seasonlong transfer embargo. This term, Bolton are the only club in the second tier who haven’t paid a transfer fee.
In other words, he has overseen 20 months of continuous improvement with no budget.
Contrast that with Birmingham City. The Blues spent £17m last summer yet finished last weekend in 20th, a place below the Trotters.
With respect to Steve Cotterill, who is still clearing up Harry Redknapp’s mess, that can only be down to Parkinson’s skill on the training pitch – illustrated by Gary Madine’s transformation from liability to £6m striker.
It’s no fluke, either. At Charlton, another club in dire straits, he didn’t pay for a single player in two and a half years, yet still reached the League One play-offs.
Even at Bradford, he was forced to generate his own cash, conducting a miraculous run to the League Cup final.
Parkinson has long been drivingg bangers into contention. It would be nice to see what he could achieve at the wheel of something with financial horsepower.