OTP’s guide to some of the impending, probable and possible transfer moves at every Premier League club.
10. Blessing Kaku
Signed from FC Ashdod in Israel, Nigeria international Kaku made just one substitute appearance for Bolton over a year long period, before being released to join Derby. His transfer was also examined by the Stevens Enquiry because the agent for the player was Craig Allardyce, the son of Bolton manager Sam.
9. Khalilou Fadiga
Never really going to work out, after the player was released by Inter Milan without making a single appearance due to heart problems. Crazily, he still passed a medical at the Reebok, but collapsed before a match before he had even made his debut. Fitted with a defibrillator, Fadiga insisted to doctors that he wished to carry on playing, but made just 13 appearances in three years before joining Coventry City.
8. Jared Borgetti
Joining Bolton at the age of 32, Borgetti became the first Mexican to appear in the Premier League. He stayed for one season, but looked cripplingly off the pace in the Premier League, scoring just two goals. He was released by the club after his first season, moving to ply his trade in Saudi Arabia.
7. Marcel Alonso
When Bolton sign a 19-year-old from Real Madrid for £2million, it should be news for excitement. However, in two years in the North West the Spaniard has made just seven league appearances in two seasons, and in March 2011 was arrested after being the driver in a car that collided with a wall, killing one of the passengers.
6. Tyrone Mears
Just not a great footballer, if we are being honest, so there was no excuse for Bolton to give their rivals Burnley £1.5million for his services. Broke his leg almost immediately, recovered and made one league appearance, but then complained of pain again. Was supposed to be out of action until March, but has still played just that one game in the Premier League.
5. David Ngog
Quite why Bolton felt it appropriate to spend £4million on a striker that had looked hugely short of confidence in scoring an average of four goals a season in a Liverpool shirt is beyond me, but that they did. He scored three goals last season at a rate of a goal every eleven games, and has strangely been given the number nine shirt for the forthcoming Championship season.
4. Marvin Sordell
However, at least Ngog played. Sordell was part of the England U21 side and one of the most promising strikers in the Football League. Bolton stole a march on many other clubs in landing the striker for £4million, but then made just three substitute appearances in Bolton’s relegation season. Quite why Sordell hasn’t played is fairly unexplainable, but the striker will play in the Olympics before the Championship.
3. Johan Elmander
At the start of his final season Elmander did actually score a few goals, but for a striker that joined for £10million at then left on a free, his record in England was simply not impressive enough. During his three season spell Elmander managed to go ten months without scoring and he ended with 22 goals in 108 games. When you consider that six of his 18 league goals game in 13 games, his poor prolificacy is evident.
2. Dan Shittu
Bolton beat off competition from Rangers to sign the defender for £2million plus add-ons, and must have wished that they had not bothered. In his first season he made nine Premier League starts, and then in his second made five appearances on the bench (unused on every occasion). He was released two seasons into his contract, after playing only reserve football for a year, and joined Millwall on a free transfer.
1. Mario Jardel
The Brazilian was woefully past his best after spells in Portugal and Turkey in which he had been one of Europe’s top goalscorers. Joining at 30 years of age and with a portly stomach, and it’s fair to say that he didn’t win the European Golden Boot at Bolton. He joined for £1.5million and failed to score a single league goal for the club, before he joined Ancona on loan after just seven games. In Italy he was nicknamed Lardo. Nice.
