Former Wanderers favourite Stelios has recalled being locked in Sam Allardyce’s office amid talks over a new contract.

The winger made 177 appearances during a memorable five-year spell with the Whites, playing alongside the likes of Jay Jay Okocha, Fernando Hierro, Ivan Campo and Youri Djorkaeff.

He was linked with a move in the summer of 2005, with Liverpool and Manchester City interested in his services.

Rafa Benitez had made his intentions clear to bring Stelios to Anfield, but Allardyce took an interesting approach to convince him to remain at the club.

“(Rafa) was calling me every single day,” he told Fore Four 2 Podcast. “I had a clause in my contract of £1million, which for Liverpool was nothing.

“He told me to be careful in training and not get injured because they would send me an offer. That went on for the whole week, and after training he was calling me to ask if I was injured.

“I asked him, ‘why have you not sent the offer?’ and he said it was a conflict with the clubs and lawyers that was out of his hands. I don’t know what happened behind the scenes.

“Towards the end of the week, we were playing West Ham away. On Friday morning, Big Sam hugged me and took me to his office.

“He locked the door and put the key in his pocket. I said, ‘gaffer, we have training’ but he told me ‘forget the training, you are renewing your contract now’.

Stelios also revealed he had previously had a disagreement with then-chairman Phil Gartside about wages.

But Big Sam was happy to give the Greek international what he wanted, and he signed a new deal within a matter of minutes.

“I went out and Big Sam told the lads, ‘Stelios has just renewed his contract’. Everyone was clapping and celebrating,” he added.

“After we trained, we got the train from Preston to West Ham. We won, which was a habit for us in those days.”

Kevin Nolan and Campo were both on target as the Whites ran out 2-1 winners at Upton Park that day.

Stelios went on to spent several more years in the North West before his time at Wanderers came to an end in 2008.

Following a stint at Hull City that was impacted by injury, he returned to Greece to finish his playing career with Larissa.