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

It wasn’t that he’s an exteam 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 is 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 29.

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 are going to strip it right back and try and get good football ingrained into a football club, it is not 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 have not.

He got all the plaudits when things were going well last season, and people thought he would 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 noone 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 have 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.