When Bolton had their own galacticos – and what happened next The 2011/2012 Premier League season will be remembered for one of the greatest final days in the competition’s history. Manchester […]

The 2011/2012 Premier League season will be remembered for one of the greatest final days in the competition’s history.

Manchester United thought they had won the title. Thousands of Manchester City fans were cursing the return of ‘Cityitis’. The title slipping from their grasp until… “Aguerrrrrroooooo” (trademark Martin Tyler).

At the bottom, however, two provincial North West towns could no longer be classed as staples of the Premier League.

Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers were relegated. Neither club has been back since.

The calamitous mismanagement at both teams in recent years would make Basil Fawlty wince.

Butlins rather than Bermuda

While Rovers try to avoid demotion to the third tier, Wanderers are attempting to escape League One at the first attempt.

A look at Bolton’s squad list suggests perspiration rather than inspiration: Wheater, Trotter, Spearing and Madine. More Butlins than Bermuda.

It’s all a long way from the club’s heyday when, over the space of a four years it was Okocha, Djorkaeff and Hierro.

Not to forget Bobic, Jardel and Campo. Candela, Ba and Nakata.

Following seven seasons in the old Division Two in the ’60s and early ’70s, the Trotters became something of a yo-yo club, dabbling with England’s top-flight twice in the ’90s.

Fun times ahead

Enter Sam Allardyce.

The truculent Englishman took over in October 1999 with the team 12th in the second tier. By the end of the season he had Bolton in the play-offs.

However, it would be through the following year’s play-offs that the club earned their place in the booming Premier League.

Then the fun started.

A team from a town of around 130,000 which takes pride in its Ye Olde Pastie Shoppe began to sign players from PSG, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund.

Firstly, it was simply about consolidation. A Fredi Bobic hat-trick against Ipswich Town in a relegation battle five games from the season’s end all but secured their Premier League survival.

Bobic told The Set Pieces: “The gaffer said only: ‘Go out and win the f***ing match!’ I scored three goals. It works. Old-fashioned English.”

This mixture of old-fashioned English, a scientific approach, a statistical game plan, a smattering of exoticism and a whole lot of curio would propel Bolton into the upper echelons of the league.

Yet the following year Jay-Jay Okocha had to inspire Wanderers to safety with four goals in the last nine games, only losing once in that run.

The pieces to complete Allardyce’s puzzle arrived that summer so he could move to the next level.

Kevin Davies would become a talisman, while Ivan Campo and Stelio Giannakopoulos were not scared to get their hands dirty with Lancashire mud.

Others, however, failed.

Ibrahim Ba didn’t start once in the league, while Jardel, scorer of 166 goals in 169 appearances for Porto, didn’t even last the season. Three goals in the League Cup was all that was to show for his half-season.

The goals did help the Trotters reach the final, where they lost 2-1 to Middlesbrough.

But in the league they would move up nine places, finishing an admirable eighth.

Campo, Davies, Nolan, Jaaskelainen, Okocha, N’Gotty and Djorkaeff formed the spine of the team. Solidity and sass. Order and artistry. Yin and Yang.

To label Allardyce a genius would be no more than a caustic observation. One would only need to be shown a picture of the ex-England manager with a napkin over his face and a pint of wine in front of him.

But his adaptability, acumen and wisdom created an atmosphere which his players bought into, whether they were from Sheffield or Liverpool, San Sebastian or Porto Alegre. Players recall their time in Lancashire with find memories.

In an interview with FourFourTwo in 2005, when asked what attracts these stars to Bolton, Allardyce said: “Me, initially. It might sound big-headed, but I’m the salesman.”

It says much about Allardyce’s charisma that he was able to blend these foreign stars with his pragmatism. He was one of the early proponents of Prozone [a sports data company] and a common phrase around the Reebok Stadium was POMO (Position of Maximum Opportunity).

Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri once said there is no antidote against talent. He had obviously never met Allardyce.

Nothing better encapsulates the heights Bolton achieved than their record against Arsenal. Between April 2003 and January 2007 the teams met 11 times. Bolton lost only twice, winning four times.

They got under the skin of Arsene Wenger.

“They had the players like Jay Jay Okocha and Djorkaeff, who could play the real creative pass but when they needed to be direct, they could be really direct,” said Wenger.

But to label them direct and attritional would be to do them a great disservice. How could they be when Okocha was capable of producing elaborate passages of skill?

His step-overs and manipulation of the ball suggested his legs were teasing defenders. Find the ball under one of the three cups. The ball was never under any.

Djorkaeff had left by the time the 2004-2005 season had started. But in had come El Hadji Diouf, an ageing Gary Speed and Fernando Hierro, following a year in Qatar.

That’s the Fernando Hierro. Five-time La Liga winner. Three-time Champions League winner.

Allardyce labelled him the best passer in the club’s history. He added experience, nous and most importantly a winning mentality.

One of the attractions of an unfashionable side was Allardyce’s powers of rejuvenation . Especially when players such as Djorkaeff can testify to this.

He did it with Speed and Diouf. As he had done previously with Campo, Okocha and Davies.

“I understand the person and I understand the complications prior to him coming here,” he explained. “I find out the style of management that will suit his personality and his style of play.

“We analyse the individual and encourage him to do the best he can, focusing on his strengths and not spending so much time on his weaknesses.”

It all came together in season 2004-2005.

Led by the nuisance factor of Davies and Diouf, akin to a bull and a bee teaming up to torment petrified defences, Bolton achieved European football for the first time in their history.

‘We had a dream team’ Bolton Wanderers fan Gareth Ewing writes: Did that really happen? Being a Bolton fan during the Allardyce era was nothing if not eventful. In fact, no, it was more than that. It was quite simply spectacular. Top six finishes. European adventures. A cup final. It was also the period when the Trotters faithful purred over the talents of our very own Galacticos. Sit back for a second and ponder this. We had Jay-Jay Okocha. We had Fernando Hierro. And by God we had Youri Djorkaeff. We thought we had died and gone to heaven. Perhaps we did! Let me take each in turn. Jay-Jay (so good, they named him twice) was my personal favourite. Stunning strikes, tremendous skills, hardly a game would go by without an opposition player having to pay the entrance fee to return to the field of play. Just ask Ray Parlour. Fernando Hierro. Fernando, of Real Madrid legendary status of course, was coolness personified. Admittedly, he took a few games to find his feet but when he did, he glided around the pitch, calling the shots and looking every inch the star he was and is. And what can we say about Youri? Joining us when we were in a bit of a relegation battle, Youri pulled out all the stops and graced our turf for three seasons, with 75 appearances and 20 goals to his name. Never to be forgotten. And that period will never be forgotten. We had a dream team. A mix of the great and the good. All this and no mention of Ivan Campo. But perhaps we can honour and remember Ivan another day. Today, it is about the three amigos – Jay Jay, Fernando and Youri. Thanks for the memories boys!

But there is a sense of what if.

Between the start of November and the start of January Bolton failed to win in 10 league games. Come the end of the season it would prove to be a massive opportunity missed.

One more win and Bolton would have finished fourth. Champions League qualification. For Bolton.

Imagine Nicky Hunt trying to get to grips with Ronaldinho. Imagine Kevin Davies and Kevin Nolan barrelling into Paolo Maldini and Kaka.

They had to make do with the UEFA Cup. Falling at the last-32 to Marseille, having previously defeated Zenit St Petersburg and drawn with Sevilla.

Wanderers finished a respectable eighth that campaign, which would prove to be Allardyce’s last full season in charge.

With his stock at an all-time high, he announced his resignation following a 2-2 draw with Chelsea with the team fifth, two games of the season remaining.

They ended up falling to seventh, still enough for a European spot.

Enter Sammy Lee.

One win in the first 13 league games saw Gary Megson replace Lee in October, nine games into the run.

Megson earned the club survival but faced criticism for playing weakened teams in the UEFA Cup.

Even so, Wanderers were unbeaten in nine European games, including a 2-2 draw with Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, until Portugal’s Sporting ended their involvement.

They are are a long way from another European sojourn.

Bolton are now on to their sixth post-Allardyce manager. Countless millions have been squandered, whole squads of players have come and gone.

With seven games of the League One season left they hold a four-point advantage in second place.

The days of signing players from Real Madrid and Roma, PSG and Dortmund are a distant dream.

But the memories of Okocha and Djorkaeff, Campo and Hierro will remain forever.