It has been 17 years since Sam Allardyce left Wanderers yet many football fans are still puzzled by how he managed to build such a star-studded squad.

Jay Jay Okocha was the first deal that turned heads as the Nigerian maestro arrived from Paris Saint-Germain in 2002.

More big names joined in the years that followed as Big Sam persuaded the likes of Fernando Hierro, Youri Djorkaeff, Nicolas Anelka, Gary Speed and Ivan Campo to come and play for the Whites.

It was an exciting time to be a Bolton supporter as the side finished sixth in the Premier League and competed in Europe.

Allardyce has now shed some light on his amusing tactic to impress potential signings when they visited the North West.

The 69-year-old relied on the club’s impressive stadium to help get deals over the line and sometimes even kept players from seeing the training ground until the papers had been signed.

During an appearance on talkSPORT alongside former Wanderers skipper Kevin Nolan, Big Sam said: “The training ground was portacabins and stuff like that and just two pitches.

“At least we had a great stadium, didn’t we? So we took them to the Reebok and to the hotel and that was OK.

“After they signed, we took them to the training ground. If we’d showed Jay Jay Okocha and Youri Djorkaeff that they wouldn’t have bothered signing on!

“We managed to improve year on year to make it that much better, but it was a sticking point.

“They used to say, ‘Can I see the training ground?’ and we’d say, ‘Well there’s a lot of working going on at the moment, you won’t see anything really’.

“We sort of blagged our way through it at that time!”

Allardyce was back at the Toughsheet Community Stadium for a Q&A event with Ian Evatt to raise money for charity earlier this month.

His last managerial role was a brief stint at Leeds at the back end of the 2022/23 campaign as the Elland Road club were relegated from the Premier League.