THE day Owen Coyle got the job at Bolton Wanderers, I was just as proud as him.

It wasn't that he's an ex-team mate, or a good friend of mine, but more the fact I knew this club was finally going to turn around.

I knew he would get us playing the kind of football everyone wanted. Not the rotten stuff that we'd seen for too long.

But I knew it was going to take time – and that's why I think some people need to take a second and think twice before shouting and screaming for change at the top.

We're nine games into the season. Not twenty nine.

If we were sitting here in the bottom three in January, well adrift of the rest, then fine. You might think that something more drastic needs to happen.

You look at the table and it doesn't look great, but we put two wins together and we're in mid-table, so why would anyone start panicking now?

Look back at the football we used to play, and I don't just mean under Gary Megson.

Even back in the days under Big Sam, when we were qualifying for Europe and doing well, people used to long for a bit more panache.

I think players like Jay Jay Okocha and Youri Djorkaeff used to mask over things a little bit, so if you're going to strip it right back and try and get good football ingrained into a football club, it isn't going to happen overnight.

Owen is still working with a lot of the players bought to play that direct football. Some of them have coped with the changes, some haven't.

He got all the plaudits when things were going well last season, and people thought he'd changed things completely. I think that was a bit false and maybe the expectations were a bit artificial. But that doesn't mean things won't turn for us again.

No-one, and I mean no-one analyses a defeat like Owen, and whether he could have done more.

That all stays behind closed doors, but he has got an honest staff behind him and I'm confident they are doing their best and that this club is in the best hands possible.

I've read some people's opinions on who should be the next manager, and it drives me to despair. This guy is turning things round so that we've got something to be proud of in the future.

That's not me saying it as a mate of Owen's, it's as someone who wants to see the best for Bolton Wanderers Football Club.

WHEN a player gets dropped it can go one of two ways – either it affects their confidence, or drives them on to improve.

I think Zat Knight struggled a little bit against Arsenal in the Carling Cup, and hasn't done enough to push ahead of David Wheater to play from the start against Swansea.

Fabrice Muamba, however, is a different kettle of fish altogether.

There was a time when he would be an automatic starter but when he ended up out of the team, he has responded in exactly the right way.

He played well at the Emirates, got about the pitch like he can, and scored a goal – something I think we all wish he'd do more of.

Owen is still tinkering about in the midfield and I don't even know if he knows what the right mix is yet. But you pick players on form, and Fabrice has taken the bull by the horns.

It's not the end of the road for Zat, by the way. He's got to knuckle down because his form has fallen sharply since last season, when he was excellent.

And I think that goes for a few of the lads.

PROMOTED teams like Swansea don't enter the Premier League with the same fear as we had 11 years ago.

Back then, you had to scrap to stay up or get left behind. But these days, smaller clubs like Swansea, Burnley and Blackpool come up looking to maximise the money they make, and even have a bit of fun in the process.

They are dangerous customers all right. They have prudent chairman who don't push the boat out massively, and then even if they go straight back down again, at least they make a lot of money out of the experience.

That translates to the players as well, and you normally find that the clubs coming out of the Championship play an attractive brand of football, which is much more relaxed.

I've been really impressed with Swansea – their movement is great and they are making a real fist of it so far.

But their inexperience has shown a couple of times. They are susceptible on the break away and I'm sure Owen will be looking at the way they crumbled against Wolves in the final five minutes last weekend.

CHRIS Eagles was red hot against Wigan, and lukewarm against Sunderland.

It's frustrating to watch wingers sometimes, they can be either on or off.

Both Eagles and Martin Petrov need to find some consistency, and as I've said before in my column, the trick is just keep giving them the ball.

Either one of them can be a match-winner on their day but I don't subscribe to all these calls to shelve the 4-4-2 formation, We were crying out to see that not too long ago, and I'm sure it will pay dividends in the end.

SAM Ricketts is closing in on his comeback, and what a great addition he'll be.

It will take a few weeks for him to get used to playing regularly but getting a fresh face back in the squad will be a big thing for us.

His enthusiasm to get back is natural and that will also spread through the team.