By GORDON SHARROCK PATIENCE paid off when Alan Stubbs joined the millionaire club this week.

Two years of transfer speculation came to a (Park)head when the Bolton skipper signed a five-year mega-deal that will rocket him into the ranks of the game's top earners.

The deal, which netted Wanderers a cool £3.5 million, was completed with sighs of relief all-round. Rarely has a high-profile transfer been carried out to the satisfaction of all parties: Celtic boss Tommy Burns got the man he wanted, Stubbs got the move he wanted, Wanderers got the price they were asking and the fans will be happy that there's a fat cheque to compensate for the loss of a player they were resigned to losing all along.

Delighted Parkhead chairman Fergus McCann summed up the mood both north and south of the border when he said: "I can't praise Bolton Wanderers or Alan's agent, Neil Rioch, highly enough. All the negotiations were conducted in the most professional way possible."

The only question to be asked is whether Stubbs is seriously enhacing his career by moving out of the Premiership?

Two points: there were no other takers at the price Wanderers were asking; and, as Stubbs was quick to point out, moving to Glasgow hasn't done Paul Gascoigne any harm.

Anyone looking down their noses at the Bhoys, should consider the facts: European football every season, season ticket sales topping 36,000 and a new stadium, which will eventually hold 60,000 and which Stubbs describes as "the best in Britain, apart from Old Trafford".

Stubbs is the fifth member of last season's promotion-winning squad to leave the club, following Jason McAteer, Owen Coyle, Mark Patterson and Richard Sneekes. And with the futures of Aidan Davison, David Lee and Fabian de Freitas in the balance, the squad which returns to the Endsleigh League in August will bear little resemblance to the one that came up a year ago.

Fans will be hoping summer signings, backed by the Stubbs cash, will fashion a side capable of bouncing back, a year older, wiser and stronger.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.