Former golf super-agent, Andrew “Chubby” Chandler, once had in his stable the winners of three major championships in a calendar year, and four in five tournaments. Yet as high as that remarkable 2011 season ranks in his list of achievements, preventing his children from becoming fans of Manchester United feels as big a win as any.
As other supporters of Bolton Wanderers will appreciate, keeping the young from the clutches of the Manchester clubs is a key rite of passage. Chandler pulled it off by acquiring a box during the Big Sam years of plenty, son Tom and daughter Romy won over by the charms of Jay-Jay Okocha, Youri Djorkaeff, El Hadji Diouf, Ivan Campo from Real Madrid, and Nicolas Anelka.
When Chandler was boarding the team plane bound for Atletico Madrid in the last 32 of the Uefa Cup in 2008 as a guest of chairman Phil Gartside, the seeds of financial ruin had already been sewn – but few imagined a decade later the club, founder members of the Football League, would be on the brink of collapse.
Having avoided the corrosive mitts of the administrators minutes before the deadline in 2018, there was no escaping their avaricious reach a year later. Were it not for the appetite for risk of present chairman Sharon Brittan and her Football Ventures group, who bought control of the club, Bolton faced the same fate as neighbours Bury, shut down 24 hours before the Bolton deal went through.
Four years on the Trotters are rising once more under the guidance of modernising coach Ian Evatt, who hopes for a second trip to Wembley in as many months after guiding Bolton to a coruscating 4-0 victory over League One champions Plymouth in the Papa John’s Trophy.
First Bolton must negotiate a play-off semi-final against Barnsley. Tickets are hot. Chandler acquired his from ex-Trotter John McGinlay, a trade for appearing on the former player’s aptly-named Under The Cosh podcast. Chandler is a veteran of the big match blag.
As an aspiring professional golfer playing at a tournament in Elgin in 1978, Chandler took advantage of a weather delay, snow would you believe, to belt down the M6 to Blackburn to watch the Bolton of Ian Greaves in a match that would decide promotion.
“I rang Willie Morgan [ex-Man Utd and Burnley] to see if he could sort any tickets. Told him what had happened at the golf and that we were driving down to watch the match. There wasn’t a ticket to be had. He told me to meet him at the players entrance at 7.15 and he would try to get us in. I did as he said.
“He sneaked us into the dressing room then we watched the match at the side of the dug out. Bolton won 1-0 to win promotion to the old First Division and I was on the Town Hall steps at 4am.”
It was one of many brilliant nights Chandler has known following Bolton. Though he would taste victory as a professional golfer in Brazil, Chandler’s forte was for management and by the time Gartside brought Allardyce to the club in 1999, Chandler’s ISM company was established, affording him a ring side seat at the Reebok during that golden period.
“I saw them beat Arsenal, Liverpool and United at home. As well as the superstars that Sam brought in, we had the likes of Kevin Davies and Kevin Nolan, solid players with big characters. It was a brilliant period, and the kids loved it. Buying that box was the only way to keep them from going to United, which was the best money I ever spent.”
Chandler and the kids were at Wembley to witness the evisceration of Plymouth. Progress to the play-offs has rekindled the atmosphere of old, creating a sense of optimism not seen since the heady days of European competition.
“It’s an amazing transformation,” Chandler said. “The new owners have done a great job of reconnecting with the fans. It feels like a family club again and the town is right behind it. That’s important in a place like Bolton, which like many towns in the region does not have much to get excited about these days.
“The trip to Wembley was amazing. Loved it. The atmosphere on Saturday will be just as good. Bolton is a fun, friendly place to watch football again. Everybody is getting into it. What Phil [Gartside] did was incredible, but just as lots of teams found it wasn’t sustainable. Everybody got carried away and spent more than they could afford.”
Coach Evatt and his Pep Guardiola-influenced, possession-based system has Chandler’s approval. Loan stars James Trafford, a young ‘keeper from United, and Liverpool right back Connor Bradley, are tipped for big careers, if not with Bolton. For now, at least, they are Evatt’s to select and have in mind a Wembley send-off.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/TeOf9QI
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