5 Years Ago

WANDERERS were fourth in the Premiership and, quite understandably, there was a was a feelgood factor around the Reebok. Why wouldn’t there be when the league table showed Sam Allardyce’s Whites ahead of Manchester United and Liverpool? But the major players refused to rest on their laurels and were determined to build on the foundations they had already laid. Assistant manager Phil Brown tipped Allardyce to leave a legacy at the Reebok that could emulate the management dynasty Bill Shankly once created at Liverpool where he was succeeded by five dyed-in-the-wool Reds — Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness and Roy Evans. Brown planned to continue as number two for the foreseeable future but made it clear he one day hoped to succeed Big Sam in the top job and reckoned there were others in the backroom, including first team coach Neil McDonald who could, in turn, carry on the good work. “It’s my ambition and I think the gaffer’s ambition that the next man in would be somebody close to his own way of doing things,” Brown said. “Probably Neil McDonald would think the same.” Captain Jay-Jay Okocha, meanwhile, underlined his ambition to help Allardyce achieve his ambition of establishing Wanderers as a permanent force in the Premiership. Confessing he had little or no interest in the history of the club he’d joined from Paris St Germain three years earlier, the legendary Nigerian international said: “I have the belief that we can still achieve more here, so, for me, the history is not over yet.” Okocha’s former Reebok team-mate Youri Djorkaeff was set to make his debut for his new club, Blackburn Rovers, according to Ewood Park boss Mark Hughes. Another ex-Wanderer Per Frandsen, now at Wigan Athletic, was ruled out for the season after suffering knee ligament damage in his ninth game for the Latics. Former world champion Nigel Mansell voiced his disgust at the FIA’s plans to drop the British Grand Prix from the F1 calendar for 2005. Veteran scrum half Adrian Lam starred in the 18-14 victory over Wakefield that kept alive Wigan’s hopes of reaching Super League’s Grand Final.