Bolton Wanderers Football Club is English Professional Football Club

 Logo Bolton Wanderers Football Club

Bolton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional football club based in the town of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. They have been in the Premier League since 2001.

Founder members of the Football League, Bolton were a successful cup side in the 1920s, winning the FA Cup three times. The club won the cup a fourth time in 1958 thanks to two Nat Lofthouse goals. A leaner spell followed, reaching a nadir in 1987 when the club spent a season in the Fourth Division. The club regained top-flight status in 1995 after a 15 year absence; their current spell in the top division started in 2001. In 2005–06 they participated in European competition for the first time, reaching the last 32 of the UEFA Cup. Bolton qualified for the 2007–08 tournament by finishing 7th in the 2006–07 Premier League season and this time they managed to reach the last 16 of the competition. Bolton Wanderers moved to the Reebok Stadium in 1997. Their former home was Burnden Park, where they played for 102 years until relocating to the Reebok Stadium.

Reebok Stadium

Bolton have spent the highest number of seasons in the top flight without winning the title (the 2009–10 season was their 71st in the top flight). The highest position they've ever earned in the top flight is 3rd in the Football League First Division on three occasions (1891–92, 1920–21 and 1924–25).

Bolton Wanderers Costume

The club was founded by the Reverend Thomas Ogden, the schoolmaster at Christ Church in 1874 as Christ Church FC. It was initially run from the church of the same name in Everton, Bolton, but broke away following a dispute with the vicar. The club changed its name to Bolton Wanderers in 1877. The name was chosen as the club initially had a lot of difficulty finding a permanent ground to play on, having used three venues in its first four years of existence.

In the 1887–88 FA Cup, Bolton Wanderers were involved in a protracted first round match against Everton. Welsh international Bob Roberts scored the only goal of the initial match played on 15 October 1887, but the result was declared invalid as Bolton had fielded an ineligible player, Robert Struthers. There then followed two drawn matches (with Roberts again scoring in the first), before Everton won the second replay (the fourth match altogether) 2–1. This time, however, Everton were disqualified for fielding two professional players who had been registered as amateurs, and the match was awarded to Bolton, who were then defeated 9–1 by Preston North End.

Bolton were one of the 12 founder members of the Football League, which formed in 1888. Having remained in the Football League since its formation, Bolton have spent more time in the top flight (Premier League/old First Division) than out of it.

Allardyce was replaced by his assistant Sammy Lee, who secured Bolton's qualification for the 2007–08 UEFA Cup. After gaining only one league win in eleven matches, Lee left Bolton in October 2007 and was replaced by Gary Megson. Megson set about making changes to the squad and accepted a £15 million bid from Chelsea for Nicolas Anelka, using the money to rebuild the squad signing Tamir Cohen, Grétar Steinsson, Matthew Taylor and Gary Cahill.

Megson guided Bolton to survival with a 16th place finish, their safety being confirmed on the final day of the season, as they went on an unbeaten run for their final five games, as well as taking them to the last sixteen of the UEFA Cup. During the European run, Bolton gained a famous draw at former European champions Bayern Munich as well as becoming the first British team to beat Red Star Belgrade in Belgrade. They also defeated Athletic Madrid on aggregate before being knocked out by Sporting Lisbon.

The new manager broke Bolton's record transfer fee with the signing of Johan Elmander from Toulouse on 27 June 2008, in a deal which cost the club a reported £8.2 million and saw Norway striker Daniel Braaten head in the opposite direction. Bolton's season started slowly, winning their opening game against Stoke City 3–1 then going on a run of 5 games without a win. November was undoubtedly their best month with 4 wins from their 5 games losing only to Liverpool. January came around and saw former fan favourite Kevin Nolan leave the club to relegation bound Newcastle United in a £4million deal, with Mark Davies and Sébastien Puygrenier the only positive signings coming in. Mixed results across the rest of the season left Bolton flirting with relegation but they finally finished 13th on 41 points.

Over the summer Megson signed Sean Davis, Lee Chung-Yong, Zat Knight, Paul Robinson (on-loan from West Brom) and Ivan Klasnić (on loan from Nantes). The 2009–2010 season started where the last one was headed, with only 4 wins from their opening 18 fixtures, notable losses including a 0–2 home loss to Blackburn and a 1–5 drubbing at Aston Villa. With no clean sheets since May the Bolton fans were clearly unhappy with the results, negative football , poor tactics and numerous excuses from the manager. On 30 December 2009 Bolton Wanderers FC announced that Gary Megson had been sacked by the club due to a run of poor performances. His last game in charge, the night before his sacking, was a 2–2 draw at home to Hull City after letting slip a 2–0 lead. On 8 January 2010, Owen Coyle was announced as Megson's replacement as manager. Coyle marked his first game in charge with a 0–2 loss to Arsenal but winning his next home match against former employers Burnley.