Given the disappointing revelations from Hamilton Academicals with regards the possible purchase of their defender, Stephen Hendrie, and the ongoing sagas of Reid and Morrison, I thought I might take a look at the biggest hits and misses of Big Sam in the transfer Market.
Nicolas Anelka, Fenerbahce, £8m
Still in his prime at 27 years old Anelka joined his 4th English Premier League club in 2006 after having a somewhat average time in Turkey. 21 goals later it became clear he was using Bolton as a springboard to his next big move to Chelsea – for £15million – but is remembered with fondness as being a big part in the Allardyce era at Bolton Wanderers.
Jay-Jay Okocha, Paris St-Germain, Free
The much travelled Okocha made a stop in Bolton on a career that would include World cup appearances, an Olympic gold medal, and countless individual honours, Okocha stopped in at Bolton for 4 years on a rather large contract. He repaid the faith shown by Big Sam with many a spectacular goal, and entertained fans perhaps not used to this kind of showmanship.
Fernando Hierro, Al Rayyan, Free
A favourite of mine growing up, Fernando Hierro was the rock in defence or midfield that the Real Madrid side of the 1990’s depended on. Hierro mad a stop for one year at Bolton on his retirement tour after 1 year in Qatar. Much to the disappointment to fans and manager alike, Hierro would retire after one season in the Premier League, but was a success in a big season for Bolton Wanderers, finishing 6th in the league.
Mario Jardel, Sporting Lisbon, 1.5m
Having scored 205 goals in 198 games over 7 season seasons spent at Porto, Galatasaray and Sporting Lisbon, Bolton fans could be forgiven for thinking that their club was about to hit the big time. Unfortunately Jardel found a new love for the Lancashire Hot Pot and left without scoring a league goal but having gained the new nickname ‘Lardo’.
Jared Borgetti, Pachuca, 1m
At 32 with a transfer fee of only £1million, perhaps not too much should have been expected from the first Mexican in English football. This proved to be true, after one season and only 2 league goals Borgetti packed his bags off to Saudi Arabia.
Ibrahim Ba, AC Milan, Free
Allardyce became famous in his time at Bolton for picking up International footballers nearing the end of their career and getting the best out of them for a short time. The time could not have been short enough for Ba, who failed to adapt to the Premier League and left for Turkey after just 9 appearances in the 2003 season.
With that, here are a few transfers or at least situations which I feel could have been handled a lot
better the last few weeks.
Ravel Morrison
This one may not be all about Sam Allardyce, there aren’t many fans of British football who don’t know that Morrison is a bit of a problem child. But he is just so talented, he ‘should’ be a phenomenal player, I would hate to see him using that talent somewhere else. I feel all he wants/needs right now is a little first team football, and given that West Ham are still wheeling out Kevin Nolan for his 3 touches a game, I think they could do a lot worse.
Mauro Zarate
I have to disagree with Allardyce over Zarate, he most certainly IS good enough for West Ham, I feel he simply does not know how to use him. Yes, the Chairmen may have signed Zarate without Sam’s consent, but that seems to have worked fine with Sahko and Kouyate. Zarate has allegedly turned up at QPR overweight, it is ultimately the responsibility of the player but come on Sam, as a manager of a top Premiership side it’s your responsibility too.
Winston Reid
Reid is out of contract this summer and West Ham, we have to believe, would like to keep him. We all know that you cannot force a player to sign a new deal, however I do not feel that public accusations of rule breaking in speaking to other clubs is the way forward here. Indeed the player has had to clarify his position himself in the media. Something that should never have to happen when the 2 people should be speaking to each other every day!