I'm sorry mate, but you've got your years mixed up. The year we survived, Bolton finished 13th with Megson in charge. The following season, the year we went down, they sacked him in March and got Owen Coyle in. They came down with us IIRC. "Megson won the Premier League Manager of the Month award for November 2008.[23] Heading into the 2008–09 season, he brought in players such as Johan Elmander for a club record £8.2m, Fabrice Muamba from Birmingham City for £5m, Mustapha Riga from Levante, Danny ****tu for £2m and Ebi Smolarek on a season-long loan from Racing Santander with a view to a permanent deal. Bolton started the season unremarkably and by October Bolton were looking set for another relegation scrap. This caused increasing pressure on Megson but he was given time by Chairman Phil Gartside and managed to improve results, leading Bolton to a high of eighth in the league. On 1 March 2009, it was announced that Megson had agreed a new rolling contract with Bolton.[24] He celebrated his new contract with a 1–0 victory over Newcastle United.[25] Bolton finished 13th in the 2008–09 season."
Pick your starting 11... Keeps. Piers Morgan, a Ford Ka, Patty. Defence. Switzerland, your lass, Graham Norton, Terry ****wit, a discarded condom, wood lice. Midfield. Gordon Ramsay, a smelly sock you came across in Herons, Michael Flaherty, Michael Flaherty's secret child who he keeps in his cellar somewhere in Leeds. An honest politician, Gary Brabin, Castro. Strikers. Whoopi Goldberg(used to play for us actually), Skippy the Bush kangaroo, the drummer from Echo and the Bunnymen, Me. So you're the manager, pick a competitive side.
Coyle got them to 14th in the '09/'10 season, having replaced the hapless Megson who was sacked on the 30/12/09 after we played them on the 29/12/09 - I was at the game!!. One of my mates is a season ticket holder at Bolton. Trust me, Megson was despised and hated by the Bolton fans. He certainly wasn't sacked in March, it was December 30th. The day after we played them and Hunt scored twice for a 2-2 draw. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2009/dec/30/gary-megson-bolton-wanderers-sacked Even says in the guardian article 'sacked after the Hull game'. Not sure where the stuff is from that you posted above, but most of it is bollocks.
Patty Norton ****wit Condom lice Flaherty Castro Sock Flaherty's love child Goldberg Kempton HT subs: Drummer for Kempton and Honest Politician for Sock. 83rd min: Meyler (just for Charon) for Condom
Which was the following season, the season AFTER I am referring to. In 2008/09, he finished 13th. We finished 17th. We didn't sign Stephen Hunt until Summer 2009. He was sacked in December 09.
I work with a number of Bolton fans who have season tickets and I can confirm they categorically hate Megson and he made Big Sam look adventurous. I was at the game where Hunt scored two. Good days, I enjoyed football then.
I'm aware they didn't like him, by the way, I don't think that really matters if he's made our gaffer.
To be fair I did get the date of his sacking wrong. I was going off when his contract was terminated, but he was put on gardening leave before his contract was actually terminated.
Stick with what? Don't you have a Ukelele to learn how to play? There's nothing to stick with - not once have I talked about 08/09. My point of reference re Megson has always been 09/10.
I haven't read a whole lot of this thread, but the question I have to ask is - are we happy to be resigned to a cookie cutter manager like Adkins who might get us a few more 0-0 and 1-0 results to grind out the points needed to hit mid-table, or would we have rathered stick with the engaging and entertaining Slutsky who was instilling a much more expansive and attacking philosophy in the players? We were a couple of quality players away - I believe - from having a decent side under Slutsky, so I know which I would have preferred.