New Bolton boss Owen Coyle insists: I had to leave Burnley nto about the money

Such has been the acrimonious nature of Owen Coyle’s switch from Burnley to Bolton, it was perhaps inevitable that his first day in charge at the Reebok Stadium would be spent looking backwards rather than forwards.
The front page of the local paper in Burnley greeted Coyle’s decision to leave with a headline that said only: ‘Betrayed’. A billboard near Turf Moor, meanwhile, has been smeared with the word ‘Judas’.

Start again: Coyle is back at the club he served as a player

It has been an emotional week for Coyle and as he began work 20 miles away on Monday it was time for Bolton’s new manager to offer his reasons for leaving.
Coyle said: ‘One thing I want to get straight is the suggestion that I have come for the money.
‘I’ve never been motivated by personal money in my life. I came into the club at Burnley on one of the bottom three Championship salaries and worked my socks off as I said I would do.   

‘If it was financial I would have taken the job I was offered at Celtic in the summer, which would have been double the salary
and everything else. I would have jumped through hoops because that was the team I
supported as a boy.
‘But I want to be involved at the highest level and the highest level in world football is the Premier League. I want to take this football club forward and take them on.’
Coyle admitted that there had been some tears as he said his farewells at Turf Moor last week. Under his guidance, Burnley had returned to the top flight of English football after a 33-year absence and many people believed the Scot had a responsibility to keep them there.  

Asked if he would feel some regret if Burnley are relegated, he hinted that he would. But he insisted that the restraints at the club were such that a successful season there would still not have been rewarded with greater financial flexibility.
He said: ‘The job is done in a sense that the football club had been nowhere near the Premier League for 33 years. I would say that at Bolton I have an infrastructure and set-up that is perhaps five or 10 years ahead of what I am leaving behind.’
Coyle suggested that only Manchester United and Chelsea are operating on a different financial level to his new club. But if he believes that then he has not been playing close enough attention to what the likes of Manchester City, Tottenham and Aston Villa have been up to in recent times.
At the Reebok, performances are still viewed in the context of what Sam Allardyce achieved in twice taking the club into Europe in 2005 and two years later. That remains the required standard.

In the long term, keeping Bolton in the Premier League will not be good enough and Coyle’s stated aim of moving the club forward while playing more attractive football certainly seems ambitious.
He said: ‘We have to make sure we get enough points to stay up. Having done that I believe there are creative players at the club and we will be looking to get the best out of them.’
Coyle begins his reign with a home game against Arsenal on Sunday but it is the meeting with Burnley at the Reebok a fortnight today that stands out.
He is prepared. ‘At this moment, I’d expect Burnley fans to come and vent their frustration, but I hope that’s not the case,’ he said. ‘Whatever the game brings up, I will just have to deal with it as I always do.
‘Whoever used the word Judas, be it websites or newspapers, I can’t do anything about it. The local newspaper had a front page with a headline that said: “Betrayed”. If that’s how people want to portray it, that’s up to them. But I can look in the mirror and know I haven’t done anything wrong.'