PHOTOGRAPHERS jostled for position, dozens of TV cameras were fixed on the main table and a room of journalists were desperate to know how Sam Allardyce had convinced Nicolas Anelka to become his club record signing.

It was late August 2006, and Wanderers had shocked the world by bringing the controversial French striker – a Premier League winner with Arsenal, a Champions League winner with Real Madrid – to the little old Reebok Stadium.

Anelka had not enjoyed his time in Turkey with Fenerbahce but his stock was still suitably high that his return to English football could have easily been made at one of the more fashionable names.

As the nation’s press crammed into the Media Suite looking for answers, the first question was blurted out by the baritone voice of Tower FM’s Graham Lovett.

“Why Bolton?”

Anelka looked suitably perplexed at the brevity of the question but answered as best he could.

Fast-forward 17-and-a-half years, same room, a couple of the same faces, and Bolton’s most expensive signing in a decade sat at the same table, facing the same question, phrased in the exact same way – this time by BBC Radio Manchester stalwart Jack Dearden.

Aaron Collins, the striker signed for a more modest fee of £750,000 from Bristol Rovers, had more of the wide-eyed wonder about him than Anelka did back then, but he has the same designs on being a signing that defines an era.

Times have changed at Wanderers since those heady days but since the club dropped out of the Premier League there have been few periods where everything seemed to be in synch, as it does right now.

Wanderers are second in the table with three games in hand on leaders Portsmouth and have just emerged from the January window with near universal agreement that their transfer activity had been productive.

Collins sat as an emblem of a new recruitment era for the club, driven by Chris Markham and Ian Evatt, aided in part by the team responsible for Liverpool’s top-flight renaissance a decade ago, whose company, Ludonautics, has been brought on board in an advisory role to the board.

The 26-year-old was probably unaware of the magnitude his signing carried, his primary focus being to join a Wanderers attack that has not exactly struggled for goals this season but will nevertheless welcome the input of the current League One Player of the Season.

Coincidentally, Collins had watched Anelka in action for Big Sam’s Bolton as a child in Newport.

“I considered playing in the same number, 39, because I have used that one before,” he revealed. “But I thought I’d leave it for now.”

He went instead for 28 – two plus eight – indicating a preference for the number 10 jersey in the future, perhaps?

Bolton haven’t been short of decent number 10s. Frank Worthington, Peter Reid, John McGinlay, Jay-Jay Okocha, to name a few.

“Yeah, I think I know that last name, seen a couple of his clips!” said the new arrival, tongue firmly in cheek.

There is a sense from talking to Collins that he has done his homework. He knows the backstory, is aware of the journey Evatt and his squad has been on, and it does not faze him.

“I am looking forward to it – pressure makes diamonds,” he said.

“It is why I am a striker. I haven’t scored as many this season at Bristol Rovers but my assists have been up there, and maybe gone under the radar. But it is producing a goal for that other player. That has been the part I have played.

“You have Vic (Adebouejo), Cameron Jerome, Jon Dadi (Bodvarsson) and Dion (Charles) – and Dion is flying at the moment.

“I want to go and get him the golden boot, get my assists up and help out with a load of goals, get into a position where in the last 10 games we can get promoted.”

Rather unusually for a striker, Collins wears unselfishness as a badge of honour. And he has created more goals than anyone else in the division, other than Derby County’s Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.

“He got a couple last weekend when I wasn’t playing,” the new boy said before the press conference had even begun. “Now I have to catch him up.”

Goals have not been an issue over the last two seasons at the Memorial Stadium but it Collins ability to augment the Bolton attack that makes him such an interesting addition.

Asked his favourite position on the pitch, the Welshman confirmed that he was looking to play in a front pairing if possible, having been used on the left side of a three in much of his time at Bristol Rovers.

“A big part of coming here was playing 3-5-2,” he said. “I have spoken to the gaffer, and I have always said my favourite and best position is in a two up-front.

“I get to do that here, or even as a 10 in behind the two, where I can roam on the right and left side as well as make the runs in behind too.

“As an all-round player, it is not all about goals. They have come with it over the last couple of years but I want to create chances as well. It isn’t just about me, there are other lads, and it is obviously great when you are scoring goals but Dion is three goals off top scorer at the moment and I want to come in and help him win Golden Boot as well because I know that will help the team.”

So, why Bolton?

“I don’t think there will be many people asking why,” he said, referring to the fans of his former club, rather than the man with the microphone stood a few yards away.

“This is Bolton Wanderers, I mean, it is a massive club. Everywhere you look, it is just perfect for where I want to be at this stage of my career.

“I’m 26, these are meant to be the best years, and this is a club which is on the up.

“Play offs last season, and there is a huge chance that we can go up automatically this time. I’d love to think I can be a part of that.

“You think of some of the players I watched playing for Bolton when I was a kid, legends, and now I am here, wearing the same shirt and playing at the same stadium.

“I want to come here and help this club be successful.”