I WRITE this letter because the Bolton Wanderers have been a considerable feature in my life for over 60 years, being a season ticket holder since 1954

The decline of the team since the early part of this year is possibly the worst I can remember. We are in free fall to disaster with a place in the First Division beckoning.

The team that was good enough to bring us promotion in the year 2000 only had three or four players of Premier League quality. We got Pederson, N'Gotty, Southall, Wallace, Nishizawa, Diawara, Marshall, Johnson and Hendry at the back, and of these only N'Gotty proved a quality player.

We retained our position in the Premier League on the very good spell of Ricketts goals in the early part of the season. Ten points from the first four games, then our win over Manchester United. Then in the second half of the season Ricketts goes on strike (no pun intended), but with the help of Bobic and Djorkauff we survived.

So we can look forward to Premier League football in 2002/2003 with the management knowing we need new players, particularly the defence with Bergsson and Whitlow getting near retirement, also the lack of goal power.

Well, we have Stig Tofting (I say no more), Djorkauff decides to stay, the club bring in Jay Jay Okacho, Mendy, Bulent, and Campo, all with great reputation. With a quarter of the season behind us they have yet to prove if they are what the club requires to stay in the Premier League.

I do not know who is responsible for club transfers, the agents, scouts, whoever, but they need to stand up and be counted. Before overseas players are signed, there should be background knowledge of the players, as well as their footballing ability.

With other squad members, what can we expect from Armstrong? The club has been trying to off-load Dean Holdsworth and when did Paul Warhurst play back to back matches?

All is not lost yet, but prompt action must be taken because on Monday the team looked like they had never met before. Campo must not be in the last line of defence, Campo should have gone off not Mendy.

If a domestic exists between the club and Ricketts it must be resolved immediately.

I would like to be positive and say I think Gudni Bergsson, after his great work for the club, should be granted a testimonial because he cannot get into the Hall of Fame due to the fact he will not have played the required number of games.

A 100 per cent Bolton fan

Derek Smith

Leeds