Megson: Allardyce success will be my blueprint

But if diplomacy is part of the manager's art then Megson took an immediate step in the right direction when he assured fans of the Premier League's bottom club that he will not shy away from the legacy left by Sam Allardyce.

As Megson said himself, Allardyce's name is written large through the recent history of the club and perhaps the greatest mistake made by the recently departed Sammy Lee was to attempt to ignore it.

So keen were Lee and the under-pressure chairman Phil Gartside to move Bolton quickly into a new era that they seemed to forget just what had made the club so successful under Allardyce in the first place.

Megson — if he is to be taken at face value — will not make that mistake.

"This is Sam Allardyce's football club," said Megson. "He is all around the place. He set all this up, along with the chairman, the board and the coaching staff.

"There are things that are set in stone here from what Sam did that we have to use.

"He did a fantastic job. He transformed this place. He had some great ideas and if I think they are right for this club then we will use them."

So much has happened at Bolton in recent times that it seems incredible that Allardyce only left in late April. The club's fall from the heights to which the current Newcastle manager took them has been spectacular.

Perhaps Lee's greatest fault was to try to impose a different style of football on what was essentially Allardyce's team. Many of his players could not cope.

And though he was at pains not to criticise anybody, Megson was categoric about the way forward.

He added: "A lot of the players here were signed to play in a certain manner. They were signed because they had certain attributes that suited the system.

"I see the way forward as being one of evolution and not revolution. Sometimes you can try and move forward too quickly. I have made that mistake in the past.

"I am a believer in square pegs for square holes and that is what I will do."

Megson's day began with a meeting with his first-team squad, followed by individual discussions with key players such as Nicolas Anelka, Gary Speed, Kevin Nolan and Ivan Campo.

Bringing some focus back to a group which appeared to fracture under the leadership of Lee would appear to be one of the most pressing challenges facing Megson ahead of tomorrow's home game with Aston Villa.

A win in that one would enable Megson to go into Premier League meetings with West Ham, Middlesbrough, Manchester United and Liverpool with a little more confidence.

Yesterday afternoon, however, saw him face some rigorous, if rather obvious, questions from a media that has picked up on the dissatisfaction emanating from the Bolton fanbase.

A poll in one local paper revealed that only 1.7 per cent of supporters polled (12 out of 699) supported Megson's appointment — and it is indeed likely that if the new manager does not succeed then chairman Gartside may have to go as well.

"It certainly makes things easier for me if things are positive among the supporters," said Megson.

"Obviously any negativity in the atmosphere can transmit to the players and make their jobs harder and so it won't exactly help our cause.

"But all I can do is get some results and try to change things that way.

"We need the supporters on our side because, without them, we are nothing so obviously we will be doing what we can. I want to get the club on an even keel.

"That is the priority."

One gets the feeling that Megson — to some extent at least — understands the scepticism that surrounds his arrival at Bolton.

Though he was at pains to talk up his achievements at West Bromwich, Stockport County and Blackpool, he admitted that his star had waned somewhat since a difficult spell at Nottingham Forest saw him cast into the wilderness for 18 months before Leicester appointed him.

There was one issue that Megson would not accept, however, and that concerns a reputation for being confrontational.

"I will do what it takes and if I have to confront people I will," he said. "But that's not my way.

"Just because people see me on the touchline they think I am barking at players. Actually, all I am doing is giving football instructions.

"Hopefully, with the players we have, I won't have to do that here."