Wanderers dream team
9:20am Tuesday 22nd December 2009 in Latest By Gordon Sharrock
BY whatever measure — be it success, excitement, entertainment, celebrity or drama — the Noughties will go down as one of the most memorable decades in the history of Bolton Wanderers.
The rise from financial crisis to the establishment of a major Premiership force, two European campaigns and a succession of world-class players pulling on the famous white shirt . . . could it have been any better?
Of course, five of the nine top-flight seasons have been spent fighting relegation. But don’t forget, this is a club whose resources and expectations are dwarfed by the heavyweights of the richest, most glamorous and, arguably, the greatest league in world football.
It’s the league every player in the world aspires to star in and for the past nine years the Reebok Stadium has been a stage on which to see the best — and not only in the ranks of the visitors.
At the height of their powers, Wanderers established a reputation for punching well above their weight, repeatedly a thorn in the side of the so-called Big Four and not only by virtue of the David v Goliath fighting spirit. They have competed with and, on occasions, outclassed more illustrious opponents, and the players responsible will go down in the annals as legends to rank alongside the great and the good of previous generations.
As the end of the decade nears, it is a time to reflect on the talents and the qualities of the teams and the players who shaped the club’s fortunes, and select a line-up that would reflect the character and class that epitomised what Wanderers were all about.
The starting point must be the formation and when you talk Bolton Wanderers there can only be one, the system that was Sam Allardyce’s blueprint and which served the club so well — 4-3-3 when in possession, 4-5-1 when the opposition had the ball.
That brings with it certain restrictions in that it limits the number of out-and-out strikers and attacking midfielders, and leads to compromise in certain areas — notably at right-back, which was something of a problem position for successive managers.
The choice is personal and will undoubtedly give rise to challenge, but the likes of Jussi Jaaskelainen, Gudni Bergsson, Ricardo Gardner, Kevin Nolan and Kevin Davies characterise what Wanderers have been about and could anyone argue with the inclusion of the great entertainers Youri Djorkaeff, Jay Jay Okocha, Ivan Campo and the incomparable Nicolas Anelka?
Djorkaeff — a World Cup and European Championship winner with France and UEFA Cup winner with Inter Milan — stands out as the landmark signing, the one that sent a message of intent across Europe. The deal — in February 2002 — suited all parties: Wanderers needed quality, Djorkaeff — out of favour at Kaiserslautern — needed top-flight football to secure a place in France’s World Cup squad. It was a win-win situation.
But Djorkaeff was not the trailblazer. Fellow Frenchman Bruno N’Gotty — once of AC Milan — was rescued from the financial wreckage at Marseille in September 2001 and although he kicked off his Bolton career at right-back, soon found his way into his preferred position at the centre of defence, where he was a class act — as any of the players who partnered him would testify.
Bergsson was one of those and the legendary Iceland international, who adopted Bolton as his home town in the Nineties, became one of the club’s finest servants. Fortunately he was as versatile as he was influential because, with a plethora of central defenders and a paucity of right-back candidates, he gets the number two shirt.
Selecting Gary Cahill alongside N’Gotty is an acknowledgment not only of what the youngster has already done but of what is expected of him in the years to come. He is still learning his trade and, although his international ambitions have been frustrated up to now, he surely will play for England one day — and that is an honour few Bolton players have achieved.
Handing Ricardo Gardner the left-back berth was not so straightforward, considering the reliability and consistency of performance that earned Simon Charlton his player of the year vote in 2002, plus the fact the jet-heeled Jamaican has played on the wing and, more recently, was converted to a more central midfield role. But Bibi — the original Reggae Boy — has a quality and depth of character to match his incredible pace and, if I was looking for anyone to put his body on the line for the Wanderers cause, I would look no further than the kid from Harbour View.
Clearly there is no contest for the goalkeeping position. Jussi Jaaskelainen would not only be in the Bolton team of the past decade but also a strong candidate as number one in a Premiership 11. Already an accomplished goalkeeper at the turn of the millennium, Jaaskelainen’s single-minded determination to improve his game with every passing season has seen him establish himself as a true world-class performer. Time and again he has produced match-winning or match-saving displays that have made him peerless as a shot-stopper while his devotion to Wanderers — his long service being acknowledged in a well-deserved testimonial in this his 12th season with the Whites — has made him a genuine Bolton legend.
Nicolas Anelka — another player with a world class pedigree — is a shoo-in for the spearhead striker role. At no time did I regard the enigmatic Frenchman as a permanent fixture at the Reebok but for a season and a half, revelled in watching a true thoroughbred in Wandereres’ colours.
I make no apologies for overlooking the dynamic Per Frandsen, the evergreen Gary Speed, the ubiquitous and often tempestuous El-Hadji Diouf or the imperious Fernando Hierro, since my “midfield” five embody the very ethos of the football club over the past decade.
Davies has operated to such devastating effect on the right that he’s proved time and again at the highest level that he doesn’t need to play “up top” to put his physical strength and fearsome commitment to good use, while Nolan, whose contribution waned somewhat in his final year before his transfer to Newcastle, was — at his peak — one of the most respected goalscoring midfielders in the Premiership.
I dare say there would be some who would accuse me of indulgence in naming Campo, Okocha and Djorkaeff in the same midfield. But who cares?
Wanderers supporters who remember the darkest of days in the Eighties, could never in their wildest dreams have imagined players of such distinction wearing the club’s colours. One was a treat, two was a delight, three was heaven sent.
Jussi Jaaskelainen Gudni Bergsson Gary Cahill Bruno N’Gotty Ricardo Gardner Kevin Nolan Ivan Campo Jay Jay Okocha Kevin Davies Nicolas Anelka Youri Djorkaeff
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