WHAT is it about Bolton Wanderers players when they leave the club?

John McGinlay, the Beast of Burnden, a legend in his own adopted town, could hardly kick straight let alone find the net when he left Wanderers.

But it's what happens to the big money departures that intrigues me.

Only Alan Stubbs and Claus Jensen have kept their careers on course after big money moves from Wanderers - and it's still early days in the case of the latter.

If you'd have asked me this time last year I'd have said Eidur Gudjohnsen was a dead cert to make it in the Premiership.

Wanderers got £4m for him - a huge fee even though nowhere near the £10m Sam Allardyce said he wanted for him - and he hasn't done a tap for Chelsea since.

He's not the first top Wanderers player to go downhill after leaving Burnden or the Reebok.

Remember Sasa Curcic? Wanderers fans were seething when he was allowed to join Aston Villa for £4m only to then watch from a distance as his career collapsed quicker than Marks and Spencer's share price.

Other £4m departures Alan Thompson, Arnar Gunnlaugsson, Nathan Blake and Jason McAteer were all unbelieveable at Bolton before going backwards in the Premiership.

Per Frandsen was brilliant for Wanderers, struggled to make his mark at Blackburn then returned to the Reebok, where he quickly found his feet again.

Maybe the moral of the story is that playing for Wanderers is the pinnacle of a player's career not matter how good they are....or maybe it's all just a coincidence.