Megson took over as manager of Bolton Wanderers on 25 October 2007 in a two and a half year deal.

He accepted that he was not the number one choice for the job, after Bolton had already had approaches for Steve Bruce and Chris Coleman rejected, and Graeme Souness had also ruled himself out.

Bolton had made a poor start to the 2007-08 season under Sammy Lee, and when Megson took over they were bottom of the Premier League table with only 5 points from 10 games. Megson's first game in charge was against Aston Villa on 28 October, and finished 1–1. He recorded his first win on 24 November when Bolton beat Manchester United, the champions and League leaders, 1–0; this was their first home victory over United for 30 years.

By the New Year Bolton were lying 16th in the Premier League table, but only two points ahead of Fulham who were 19th. In January 2008 they sold Nicolas Anelka to Chelsea for £15 million, and brought in no comparable replacement. In February 2008 however they beat Atletico Madrid (who at the time were lying fourth in La Liga) 1-0 on aggregate, winning 1-0 at home and drawing 0-0 away, to reach the last 16 of the UEFA Cup for the first time in the club's history before proceeding to play the reserve team in Lisbon in the Last 16 with the tie tied at 1-1, Bolton lost the away leg 0-1. Megson picked a reserve side so that the first team were rested for Sunday's relegation battle against Wigan Athletic. They proceeded to lose 0-1 to a ten man Wigan side.

Their League form remained poor, and a 4-0 defeat at Aston Villa on 5 April left them in 18th place, two points adrift of safety. But they proceeded to take 11 points from their last five games (including a 1-1 draw at Chelsea on the final day of the season) to secure survival in the Premier League - the first time Megson had achieved this as a manager.

Megson won the Premier League Manager of the Month award for November 2008.

Heading into the 2008/2009 season, he brought in players such as Johan Elmander for a club record £8.2m, Fabrice Muamba from Birmingham City for £5m, Mustapha Riga from Levante, Danny Shittu for £2m and Ebi Smolarek on a season-long loan from Racing Santander with a view to a permanent deal.

Bolton started the season unremarkably and by October Bolton were looking set for another relegation scrap. This caused increasing pressure on Megson but he was given time by Chairman Phil Gartside and managed to improve results, leading Bolton to a high of eighth in the league. On 1 March 2009, it was announced that Megson had agreed a new rolling contract with Bolton. He celebrated his new contract with a 1-0 victory over Newcastle United. Bolton finished 13th in the 2008/2009 season.

During the summer of 2009 Megson added to the Trotters' squad with the additions of Portsmouth midfielder Sean Davis on a free transfer, Hull City's Welsh right-back Sam Ricketts, Aston Villa's England international defender Zat Knight for £4m, veteran left-back Paul Robinson on loan from West Brom and the South Korean international Lee Chung-Yong. Just before the transfer window closed he added the Croatian international Ivan Klasnić from FC Nantes on a season long loan.

On the 30th December 2009, it was announced that Megson has been relieved of his duties as manager with immediate effect.

Source: Wikipedia