Gary Speed could hasten Sammy Lee exit
Bolton chairman Phil Gartside is considering the future of manager Sammy Lee following Gary Speed's decision to abandon his coaching role. Speed's move underlined the growing hostility of senior players towards Lee's management style.
Gartside and club owner Eddie Davies had been prepared to give Lee two more Premier League games, against Arsenal and Aston Villa, to change the team's fortunes, but following discussions with unhappy players, the pair are now contemplating more immediate action to try to quell increasing disharmony in the dressing room.
Speed, promoted to player-coach by Gartside following Lee's appointment as successor to Sam Allardyce last May, informed Lee of his decision to step down from the coaching staff on Wednesday after being omitted from the squad for the club's past two games, against Chelsea in the league and FK Rabotnicki in the Uefa Cup.
The 38-year-old, one of four first-team coaches at Bolton, had become disillusioned with his role following the appointment of Archie Knox to Lee's back-room team in August. Although Lee has since claimed that it was his decision to relieve Speed of his duties, club sources have confirmed Speed's version of events.
Lee, just five months into his first managerial job, has bewildered senior figures at the club, on and off the pitch, with his methods and inability to win the support of his players. More than half of Allardyce's highly respected staff have left the Reebok since Lee's appointment and his relationships with Speed, captain Kevin Nolan and midfielder Ivan Campo are understood to have become damaged beyond repair.
All three players have been surprisingly dropped by Lee this season and the manager's decision not to name Campo, a Champions League winner with Real Madrid, in the club's 25-man Uefa Cup squad has angered the player's team-mates and caused raised eyebrows in the boardroom.
Several of Bolton's foreign players have questioned Lee's introduction of a weights-based training programme and his treatment of popular first-team coach Ricky Sbragia, whose role has been reduced merely to taking pre-match warm-ups at home games, has also provoked a negative reaction in the dressing room.
With only one league victory this season, Lee is struggling to make a strong case for a stay of execution, but having spoken of "malignant rumours" emanating from the dressing room, he has called on his detractors to confront him with their criticisms.
He said: "Who are these people? It's time for these 'senior sources' to stand up and be counted. I know it's not everybody, but all I'd like is for those one or two to just come and knock on my door.
"I hear things about my methods, but I've been with these lads for over two years and I've been at the FA and with Liverpool. People are trying to undermine what we are trying to do."
Telegraph
