Wanderers could suffer a delayed reaction to their Carling Cup Final heartbreak this summer when they launch their big recruitment drive.

Sam Allardyce is not only resigned to having to bear the psychological scars of the Millennium Stadium defeat for the rest of his days but suspects that, not having the cup to show off and the incentive of UEFA Cup football to offer, it will be difficult to entice top talent to the Reebok.

"If we'd won the Carling Cup I could have gone anywhere," the manager said as he set his sights on bringing in eight new players over the close-season.

"France, Spain, Italy, South Africa, Nicaragua ... you just can't measure the pull that would have given us.

"Forget about the finances here, which we keep banging on about, just think about the pull you'd have if you had that trophy next to you when you were speaking to players.

"Trophies are a mega influence on foreign players - that and the promise of European football.

"The Premiership is the greatest league in the world; we know that because most of the top players play here.

"But, for some, it's not the be all and end all. For them it's about whether you can offer them Europe."

The measure of Allardyce's ambition is that, having enticed the likes of N'Gotty, Djorkaeff, Okocha and Campo to the Reebok, he had a genuine interest in Fernando Morientes, when he became surplus to requirements at Real Madrid.

But the Spanish international striker chose to join Monaco on loan and subsequently scored the goals that knocked Real out of the Champions League, earning the French league leaders - once one of the Continent's richest clubs - a semi-final showdown with Chelsea.

"We thought we could get Morientes, because he was a mate of Campo's, but he wouldn't come because we couldn't offer him European football," Allardyce said.

"Players don't play for Monaco for the money any more, because they ain't got any - not at the levels they used to have. But they could offer Morientes Champions League football, so he was happy to go there."

Nevertheless, Allardyce is confident that, having reached a major final, Wanderers have shown they are not only ambitious, but upwardly mobile.

"I don't have any regrets about getting to the final," he said, "only that we didn't win it. That's because, no disrespect to Middlesbrough, we were equally as good as them, and it was an even final that we could have won.

"We weren't playing against a Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea, which is usually the case when one of the smaller clubs gets to a final - Southampton against Arsenal in the FA Cup last year ... Millwall against Manchester United!

"We had a chance and we didn't take it. But, in many ways, we've shown that the dream is becoming a reality and, if we can finish in the top half of the table, we can make a statement for Bolton Wanderers.

"We're no longer pinching ourselves about getting into the top half of the Premiership or pinching ourselves about getting to a major final; and we're no longer pinching ourselves about going for players who want to come to Bolton because they can see that one day we might be playing in Europe.

"If we do it right this summer, we'll progress even more; if we don't, we could just as easily slip back into obscurity."