Sam Allardyce was an “innovator” during his time at Wanderers, according to former striker Michael Ricketts.

Ricketts played under Big Sam during a two-and-a-half-year spell with the Whites, racking up more than 100 appearances.

Allardyce has gone on to manage the likes of Newcastle, West Ham and Everton since his Bolton exit in 2007.

Ricketts believes the 68-year-old was ahead of his time at Wanderers and isn’t surprised by the career he has had.

"People will say he is one of the pioneers - him and Arsene Wenger at the time,” he told Deeney Talks Podcast.

"One thing about Sam was his great ability to delegate and let other people do stuff. He would just sit in the background and navigate everything.

"We had sports scientists, we probably had more staff than players. Going to away games, we probably had two coaches because we had loads of staff.

"ProZone (a tool that analyses fitness data), it was Big Brother. You couldn't hide! You would see how many kilometres you had run, which was horrible for me. He was definitely an innovator.”

Ricketts made a big impact at Wanderers, scoring in the memorable 3-0 win against Preston North End in the play-off final at the Millennium Stadium.

He was the last Bolton player to reach 20 goals in a single season before Dion Charles achieved that feat over the past campaign.

"(Allardyce) trusted me,” Ricketts added. “When he brought me into Bolton, he told me how I was going to play and score goals.

"In my first season, I was in and out quite a bit and I think he just took his time with me. He had good staff in Neil McDonald and Phil Brown. Phil Brown was a brilliant coach.

“As I said, Sam's great ability is that he was able to delegate. Phil Brown took it on and coached us more or less.

"Sam would come out on a Friday and do his match tactics and stuff like that. He had full control but he would oversee everything.

"It's a great ability to have trust in yourself and you can let people do their jobs, do them well and just take over when you need to."