PETER Reid fancies the challenge of turning Wanderers into winners.

The former Sunderland and Manchester City boss has worked with Jimmy Phillips as a football advisor since mid-March but admits he would relish the opportunity to manage at the Macron.

“If I got offered a chance to sit down and talk, I’d do it,” he told The Bolton News. “It’s a big job but I have had plenty of them in football. I have always been a competitor and certainly this job is a competitive one.”

Reid made 261 appearances for Wanderers, who were his first professional club, and still holds the place dear to his heart.

“It’s a great club, I signed as an apprentice aged 15 in 1971 and still live around here so I have a lot of love for it,” he said.

“It’s sad what has happened but you can’t dwell on the past. They have a decision to make on the manager over the next couple of weeks which his very important, they have to get it right.

“The supporters have had three or four seasons where they are not used to winning, so have the players. You have to change that mentality.

“The football club has been through a really difficult spell in the last couple of years as we all know but there have been clubs in worse situations which are now looking strong, Bournemouth and Swansea for example, so hopefully it’s the beginning of a new era, a new start.”

Reid was one of many former players who returned to play in the legends game on Saturday, watched by a bumper 10,000 crowd.

“You look at some of the footballers in there who played for this club,” Reid said. “I’ve been in football a long time and you see them walk in – the Alan Thompsons, Jason McAteers, Sasa Curcic, Jay Jay Okocha – and think ‘wow’ this is a football club with such a massive legacy.”