Sam Allardyce has revealed that he once tried to bring Pep Guardiola to Wanderers.

Allardyce built a star-studded during his time with the Whites, signing Jay Jay Okocha, Ivan Campo, Nicolas Anelka and Youri Djorkaeff among others.

The 68-year-old says he travelled to Spain to meet with Guardiola over a potential move to the North West.

He had identified the Barcelona legend as a potential replacement for Fernando Hierro, who left Bolton in 2005.

Allardyce hoped the prospect of playing in the Premier League would be enough to convince Guardiola to join, but he was not interested in a move to England at the time.

Big Sam told William Hill: “Pep’s one that got away. I sat in his flat in Barcelona when he was going to replace Fernando Hierro.

“But Pep chose not to come. I didn’t think he’d remember that when we met again, but obviously he did. We’ve kept in contact.”

He added: “We said we’d like him to come and play for us and met him in Barcelona for an hour or two. But he chose not to, it never went any further than that.”

Guardiola made more than 250 appearances for Barcelona during an 11-year spell with the Spanish giants.

He also had stints at Brescia, Al-Ahli and Dorados before hanging up his boots and heading into management.

The 52-year-old had a hugely successful spell in the dugout at Camp Nou, enjoying success domestically and in Europe.

He also had a stint at Bayern Munich before taking charge at current club Manchester City in 2016.

Guardiola’s side have won the Premier League title four out of the last five seasons and currently sit second in the table.

Meanwhile, Allardyce has been out of the game since his exit from West Brom at the end of the 2020/21 campaign.

He recently took charge of a Turton side in the Generations Cup at Darwen FC, reuniting with former Bolton favourite Ricardo Gardner.

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