Sammy To Make His Mark

By Mark Heys
June 1 2007

The honeymoon period is now consigned to the history books and Sammy Lee is more than ready to stamp his authority on Bolton Wanderers Football Club just a few weeks prior to embarking on his first full season as a football manager in his own right.

Lee was flung into the deep end with just two games of last season remaining following the shock departure of predassessor Sam Allardyce after over seven years.

The former England international describes that experience as a "babysitting" period and says that stability and European qualification had to be the main objective.

"I have fully realised that in the last two games of last season I was babysitting, I couldn't put my own stamp on things. The priority was getting qualification for Europe and I didn't feel it was right to make wholesale changes."

"I want people to know that the last two games of last season was a difficult period. It was all about not changing things and qualifying for the UEFA Cup. It was tense but we managed it and the reason we qualified was not down to the final two weeks of the season - it was 10 months of hard graft." said Lee to the official Bolton website

Now UEFA Cup qualification is assured, the 48-year old will be bringing his own ideas to the club, including appointing a General Manager over the coming days, beleived to be Liverpool scout Frank McParland.

"In the coming season, I'm going to change things and if I am successful or fail I want to do things with the influence of myself and my backroom team.

"This is not a criticism of the previous regime - I was part of that regime and it was successful, but I feel to move things on I want to do things differently with my coaching staff.

"The new structure is evolving with three first team coaches and a general manager. Things will be different and changes will be made which I believe for the better.

The 4-4-3 or 4-5-1 system has served Bolton well during the previous management regime but Lee revealed he will be looking to adopt more than one tactical approach during his term in office at the Reebok Stadium.

"I would like the team to be adaptable at all times.I would like us to have more than one system of play. I firmly believe we were excellent at 4-3-3, but you have to give the opposition credit that they prepared their game plan to how we play and if we have only one option over time people can accommodate that and combat it.

"We need to be flexible and work with the personnel we have at our disposal.The targets I'm looking will be able to play in a variety of systems and that will be paramount in our recruitment process."

Lee stressed that although he is a nice guy, he will not be considered to be weak or stupid and will take the hard line with his players if and when is necessary.

"People might see me as a nice guy, which is what I am. I don't want nice to be misread as being weak or stupid. From all my dealings, I hope people will turn round and say, 'Sammy Lee he is nice, honest, fair and firm as well'.

Previous manager Allardyce used to watch the games from the stands alongside chairman Phil Gartside, but Lee insists he will be staying on the touchline and leaving the perspective from the stands to his General Manager.

"I plan to continue watching matches from the touchline.I will have a coach and the general manager sat in the stands watching the game from a different perspective. I enjoy watching the game from the touchline and with experienced people in the stands watching from a different vantage point we'll have everything covered offering a different slant."

Lee is hopeful of securing Tal Ben-Haim and Jussi Jaaskelainen to new contracts whilst also bringing in new players to improve the current squad of players.