Former Bolton Wanderers goalkeeping coach Fred Barber believes his former sides have turned their fortunes around and believes Sam Allardyce was a 'good technician' due to the quality of sides he faced.
Barber spent 16 years on the coaching staff with the Whites on the backroom team of firstly under Colin Todd, before working under Allardyce. He was part of the coaching staff which saw the club's rise to playing European football in the mid-2000s.
Barber is now goalkeeping coach at League Two side Crewe Alex where he has been since 2015 and recently returned with the Cheshire club to his former employers in the Papa Johns Trophy. He brought through the likes of Jussi Jaaskelainen, Ali Al-Habsi and Adam Bogdan through to the Bolton first team.
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Barber departed Bolton in 2012 following the club's relegation from the Premier League. Since then, Wanderers have fluctuated between the Championship, League One and League Two, and went close to going out of business altogether in 2019 before being saved by the Football Ventures consortium and chairman Sharon Brittan.
Wanderers have achieved promotion from League Two in 2021 and achieved a ninth placed finish last season in League One. The Whites are aiming to be in contention for promotion this campaign.
Barber believes his old club have now turned a corner and are on their way back on the right track after difficult recent times, with his son Jonathan still a Wanderers fan having come through the academy system there. Barber Senior believes that his former boss Allardyce has an unfair label as managing a long ball team in Wanderers, but feels he was quite the technical manager due to the great Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool sides the Whites took on in that period.
Speaking to Crewe Alex's YouTube channel, Barber said: “I hope so (Bolton have turned a corner and on way back). My son is still a Crewe and a Bolton fan because he’s been there since he was six at the academy. I think they have turned it around because they had some dark times, but every club goes through things like that, don’t they.
"Sam got labelled as a big long ball team but he didn’t really, he actually could do all sorts of things. He was quite a good technician, he knew what he was doing because he had to play against some good sides - your Arsenals and your Liverpools and your Man Uniteds - so he knew what he was doing."
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