Bolton Wanderers committed Sunderland AFC, Roy Keane transfer robbery | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers managed to rob Sunderland and Roy Keane over the sale of El Hadji Diouf in 2008.

Bolton Wanderers were a stalwart of the Premier League in the mid-2000s, qualifying for the UEFA Cup on a couple of occasions and even flirting with a top four finish and playing in the UEFA Champions League a few times.

They had some stellar names within their squad, a part of ‘Big Sam’s Galacticos’, such as Jay-Jay Okocha, Nicolas Anelka, Youri Djorkaeff, Fernando Hierro, Ivan Campo and many more.

One player who was not only just a cult hero at the then Reebok Stadium but had also become genuinely one of the best, and most irritating, wingers in the top-flight was El-Hadji Diouf.

Diouf was a fan favourite and was often seen out on the town in Bolton but always performed to his absolute maximum, both in terms of quality and effort, at the weekend.

However, as is so often the case with any story, the good times do come to an end and that is what happened with that era of Bolton after Allardyce left in the spring of 2007.

The 2007/08 season saw the Trotters narrowly escape relegation under Gary Megson, despite UEFA Cup heroics that season which saw a 2-2 draw at the Allianz Arena against Bayern Munich and a round of 32 defeat of Atletico Madrid.

That group of Bolton players were fading and a changing of the guard was required so when Sunderland came in for the former Liverpool winger, Bolton managed to get away with robbery.

El Hadji Diouf had begun to wane at Bolton Wanderers

As Bolton’s recognisable squad began to age, deal with new management and still try and compete on four fronts, performances and results majorly dipped.

From being within touching distance of a top four finish in the 2006/07 season, Bolton stayed up by just a solitary point in the 2007/08 campaign, courtesy of a five-match unbeaten run of form at the end of the campaign which saw them earn victories over West Ham United, Middlesbrough and Sunderland, as well as draws away at Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea.

On the penultimate day of the season, their 2-0 victory over Sunderland more or less assured the Whites of survival and it was perhaps one of Diouf’s best performances in a Bolton shirt, certainly of that season anyway.

The former Liverpool man, who had moved to Bolton on an initial loan deal in the summer of 2004 before moving permanently in 2005, had made 30 starts in the 07/08 season but scored just four times; two of which, ironically, came against Sunderland.

He had a special moment with the winner in that tie against Atletico in Europe, but Diouf had clearly begun to fade as a force without the influence of Allardyce, who had taken a punt on him following his famously disappointing season at Anfield.

Diouf, like Bolton, were almost crying out for a fresh start and Bolton were willing to cash in on most players with Anelka having been sold to Chelsea in January 2008 and Kevin Nolan sold on to Newcastle United in January 2009. They were deals that hurt Bolton with both players shining for their future clubs but Diouf, not so much.

Under the management of Roy Keane, with Sunderland seeking to further re-establish themselves in the top-flight after avoiding relegation in their first year back in the top-flight, the Black Cats splurged £2.5 million on the Wanderers’ cult-hero, and it was a deal that saw them robbed blind.

El Hadji Diouf majorly underperformed at Sunderland

In the summer of 2008, Sunderland were looking to kick on and so brought in plenty of new signings. Alongside the likes of Teemu Tainio, Pascal Chimbonda, Steed Malbranque and Djibril Cisse; El Hadji Diouf also arrived on Wearside.

Tasked with becoming a fulcrum of the Black Cats’ attack, Diouf was expected to provide some added intensity to a Sunderland side that had scored just 36 goals the previous campaign.

Instead, he endured a miserable time of it playing as a centre-forward for large parts under Keane, starting eight of Sunderland’s opening ten matches and only contributing with a yellow card in those games.

Flittering in and out of the eleven, Diouf eventually made just 14 appearances for Sunderland without scoring or even providing an assist, and after Keane was sacked and replaced by Ricky Sbragia in mid-December, the writing was on the wall for his future at the Stadium of Light.

Sbragia had been the first-team coach at Bolton and had worked with Diouf but even whatever relationship there was between the two couldn’t salvage the situation and Sunderland had to swallow their pride and allow for Diouf to depart in January, joining Blackburn Rovers, reuniting with Allardyce, for £2 million.

Diouf went on to clinch cult hero status again with the likes of Leeds United and Rangers but doing so at a lower level, highlighting that his time at the very top end was more or less over, just before Sunderland had realised it.

Sunderland eventually just about survived the drop in the 2008/09 campaign and did make a large percentage of their money back on Diouf but it cannot be ignored that they were initially robbed by Bolton in the first instance.