SOCCER ANGLES:The messianic Scot has worked his managerial magic on Bolton, who could claim a first FA Cup final place in 53 years tomorrow
HE HAS something about him, Owen Coyle. Spend even a brief time in his presence and you know you’re not dealing with a mug. He is funny yet serious, charming yet professional, ambitious yet serene. He has going-places energy.
That at least is the impression. If Coyle’s an actor, and he’s a self-obsessed charlatan desperate for what’s next for him, then he should be in a different theatre.
But football it is and tomorrow that means Wembley. For Bolton Wanderers, one of the 10 clubs the 44-year-old Coyle played for, it is a first FA Cup semi since 2000. Then they were a second tier club taking on Aston Villa and held them 0-0 until penalty kicks.
Sam Allardyce had recently arrived back in Bolton and under him the club grew and established themselves in the Premier League. But when Allardyce left in 2007, first under Sammy Lee and then Gary Megson, Bolton slipped.
Looking down the road to Burnley, Bolton saw Coyle’s energetic philosophies transforming their Lancashire rivals and they shoe-horned him out, to much anger. Coyle’s first game in charge at Bolton was last January. It was at home to Arsenal, who won 2-0. Cesc Fabregas was superb that day.
Upstairs afterwards Coyle was relentlessly upbeat. His new team remained in the relegation zone but he promised they would not stay there long. Their next league game was against Burnley. Bolton won. By season’s end they were 14th and Burnley were in the Championship.
Coyle had made a material difference to both clubs, the one he joined and the one he left. Burnley are now on to their second manager since Coyle left Turf Moor and Bolton are eighth in the Premier League, two points off sixth.
That afternoon against Arsenal, Coyle had said he would work, as he had done at Falkirk and St Johnstone in Scotland previously, through “repetition”.
It has not got a good name, repetition. In broader society it smacks of old-fashioned and discredited. As a teaching practice, it is sneered at in certain quarters.
But in football it still counts. Alex Ferguson always says the reason Eric Cantona was so good at what he did, and the reason Paul Scholes is so capable at shooting, is because they are the players who stay longest, practising what they do. They have natural ability but through repetition it is honed, made ready for action.
It was still something to hear Coyle use the word in reference to his coaching. There is this notion promoted that “modern” managers would surely not employ such old methods. Coyle scotched that.
Through repetition he has made Bolton as reliable as they were under Allardyce but also enjoyable to watch. You would cross the road to see Bolton.
In turn Coyle has raised his own profile. From the Little Donegal area in the Gorbals in Glasgow, with five older brothers and three sisters, Coyle fits a certain Scottish manager expectation. He is driven and you can practically smell the inner commitment.
But you won’t smell alcohol. He decided early on he didn’t like drink or its effect. Coyle is a non-drinking, non golf-playing Scotsman.
Or Scots-Irishman, if, as they say, you know your history. In Tilburg 17 years ago, Coyle, qualifying for the Republic of Ireland via ancestry, won his one and only cap two months before the USA World Cup. He went on as a late substitute for Tommy Coyne against the Netherlands. Bonner, Whelan, Moran, Staunton, were playing that day.
All these years on Coyle could do something historic with Bolton tomorrow at Wembley against Stoke City. It is 53 years since Bolton reached an FA Cup final. As it was Nat Lofthouse who lifted the trophy then, and died in January, there is a special feel to Bolton Wanderers’ pursuit.
For all Coyle’s love of repetition though, a repeat of that will not be achieved by sentiment alone. Stoke City could send a chill through an abattoir. They defeated Bolton 2-0 in January.
But showing some of the natural fascination and curiosity Coyle brings to the job, he took his players down to Wembley in midweek just to walk around and gain some familiarity. Just so tomorrow is not as big a shock.
Roy Hodgson last week expressed surprised disappointment that there is not more focus on the meaning of “professionalism” throughout the game and he would be impressed by Coyle’s level of dedication.
Coyle is now a rising managerial star. Even when Bolton lose, they still play with a recognisable pattern, which is not something can be said about all managers. But if Bolton win against Stoke, Coyle’s star will rise further and the club will not want it repeated outside their own boardroom that he is believed to have a one-year rolling contract. Owen Coyle is going places.
Looking like end of era for Inter
SO FAREWELL then Inter Milan. Once again the Champions League champions proved what so many players say, this is the pinnacle of football now, not the World Cup.
In failing to defend their title, Inter joined a list few would have expected to be so long. Arch-rivals AC Milan were the last team to successfully defend European soccer’s top trophy, back in 1990, when they beat Benfica 1-0, after hammering Steaua Bucharest 4-0 the previous year.
We can get cheesed off with the same old faces at the group stage and their accumulation of wealth and thus power, but when it comes to the last 16, the competition retains the allure of the old European Cup. It’s a knock-out.
It did for Inter over in Gelsenkirchen on Wednesday, though they had been reduced to virtual bystanders in this second leg after Schalke’s incredible 5-2 win in the first leg at the San Siro.
Once the 33 year-old Raul put Schalke 6-2 ahead on aggregate, Inter were the former champions. They had beaten German opponents in Madrid last May, Bayern Munich, but not this time.
How Inter’s players had celebrated in the Bernabeu, a communion with fans who had had to put up with AC Milan’s European dominance for decades.
But not on Wednesday. Only Javier Zanetti really went to the travelling fans in Gelsenkirchen, a few others clapped from afar.
Wesley Sneijder was not one of them. He went straight down the tunnel on being substituted. No handshake for the manager. It looked like the beginning of the end for Sneijder at the club, and possibly for this Inter era.
