Football Season Guide

Bolton had a good start of the season last time out under Owen Coyle but they dropped 14th place in the end after challenging for a top ten finish for most of the campaign. This highlighted their rather shallow squad and that might remain an issue this season, at least at the start. Johan Elmander, who finally found his range last season, has earned a big money move to Galatasaray while Danny Sturridge, who contributed a number of important goals, has returned to Chelsea. Meanwhile, the precious Chung Young Lee will miss most of the season with a broken leg. Matt Taylor has also moved to pastures new so Coyle has been busy on the transfer market this summer. So far he has brought in Darren Pratley from Swansea, rescued Nigel Reo Coker from Villa and taken on Burnley duo Chris Eagles and Tyrone Mears. Still, more reinforcements are definitely needed to ensure Bolton remain competitive in midtable, which should be their aim this season. Coyle will hope to hang on to the highly rated Gary Cahill in central defence. Zat Knight finally seems to have established himself in central defence alongside him while Steinsonn and Robinson look favourites at this stage to retain the full back roles. Petrov, Holden and Muamba should return in the midfield while Coyle should logically be on the market for a striker to partner the evergreen Kevin Davies upfront.