Coyle comments - why I chose Bolton over Celtic!

Some good comments from Coyle here.

Sounds promising to me too, especially seems as though he will want to do more than survive and it sounds like we are going to give him the funds to do it too.





Owen Coyle last night confirmed he turned down the chance to manage Celtic last summer because they do not play in the English Premier League.

Coyle spoke out about the advances from Celtic Park to quash suggestions that he has now moved from Burnley, whom he had just taken into England’s top flight, to former club Bolton Wanderers for personal financial gain.

As he was officially unveiled as successor to Gary Megson, he said: “If it was finance [that was the deciding factor] I would have taken the job at Celtic in the summer. That is just a knee-jerk reaction from people that do not know me.

“You want to be the best you can be and that’s my motivation. I want to be involved at the highest level and the highest level in world football is the Premier League.

“There’s no doubt about it, the best individual players in world football operate in the Premier League. You want to go and compete with the best in the business.

“Celtic were the team I supported as a boy and I spoke with Celtic in the summer. They offered me the job and I turned it down to stay at Burnley. I think that puts to bed anything about finances.

“When I came into the job at Burnley I was probably in the bottom three in terms of salaries in the Championship. It did not faze me because money has never been my motivation. If I had wanted money I would have taken the Celtic job and trebled, maybe even quadrupled my salary.



“The people at Burnley knew that. They knew I was ambitious. Managers do one or two things. They do well or they don’t. If they don’t they lose their jobs. Anyone who knows me is aware I put my heart and soul into that job and left no stone unturned.



“There were financial restraints and an embargo placed last January, which meant I could not bring a player in. No-one was aware of that. I kept that to myself and got on with it.



“Yes, I have disappointed a lot of people by leaving the club, I accept that, but I can look at myself in the mirror and know I conducted myself right in the right manner.”



Coyle, whose first match in charge will be at home to Arsenal on Sunday, added: “My frustration is we took Burnley to a certain level and it was always going to be difficult to throw £30m at it.

“If you look at the infrastructure of the club [Bolton], the academy, the training centre, everything is geared for top-flight football and my job as manager is to make sure that happens.



“I must say, Burnley have still got a Premier League team as well. We really galvanised the club. On balance, I had to look at, if we’d achieved survival, come the summer is there going to be that investment? I wasn’t sure there was. In a transitional period, I was trying to move things along quicker than finances would dictate.”



Phil Gartside, the Bolton chairman, was delighted to have Coyle in place. He said: “This was the only guy we wanted. You have to remember I recommended him to Burnley in the first place.”

He sounds like an ambitious/driven man; that means that if he is successful, we can anticipate him moving on rather than going for the 10 year plan like BSA did.

It sounded to me that he joined us more on that ambition than on love of the club, though I don't doubt that he has a special (little) place in his heart for us.