Bolton Wanderers found cult hero for £3.5m - Trotters will wish they made different decision 5 years earlier | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers could've saved a fortune in this transfer saga.

Bolton Wanderers have spent their recent history competing in the lower tiers of the English Football League, but that wasn’t always the case.

In the not-too-distant past, the Trotters were Premier League regulars and even fought towards the top of the division, mixing it with clubs such as Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool.

From 2003/04 to 2006/07, Bolton didn’t finish outside of the top eight and peaked with a sixth-place finish in 2005 under Sam Allardyce.

They reached the knockout rounds of the UEFA Cup in 2006 and 2008, highlighting the level of competitiveness they displayed.

A lot of Wanderers’ success was down to the brilliant players they recruited during that period, who now live long in the memory of any fans of the Premier League from the mid 2000s who got to see Bolton operate at the peak of their powers.

Stars from abroad such as Nicolas Anelka, Jay-Jay Okocha and Fernando Hierro brought a flair never before seen in Bolton, but provided enough quality for the Trotters to compete on the continental stage.

This star power was mixed with the English grit of Kevin Nolan and Kevin Davies, all combining to form a team that was notoriously hard to beat under the guidance of Allardyce.

These players are all remembered fondly by Bolton supporters, but there is one deal that the Trotters commissioned at the time which could’ve been handled slightly better in hindsight.

Bolton Wanderers could’ve saved millions in Gretar Steinsson deal

In 2008, Bolton were on the way out of their golden period and edging further towards relegation from the Premier League, a fate they still haven’t recovered from to this day.

The Trotters would finish the 2007/08 season in 16th place, a sharp contrast to the run of top eight finishes they’d experienced in the four years prior. Bolton were to make the necessary additions in January to try and find some competitiveness once again and landed upon Gretar Steinsson.

Steinsson had been playing for AZ Alkmaar side led by Louis van Gaal for a fee of £3.5m, following the sale of Anelka to Chelsea for £15m.

Wanderers now had money to spend and decided to invest a chunk of it in the full-back, who had previously been the subject of interest from Middlesbrough.

From 2008 to 2012, Steinsson would make over 125 appearances for Bolton and proved to be a solid, dependable option for them at the back and in midfield.

His exit coincided with the Trotters’ relegation to the Championship, but the £3.5m spent on the Iceland international was considered money well spent by those involved with the club.

However, Wanderers could’ve secured his services for no expense at all five years earlier than when he eventually signed.

Steinsson had been given the opportunity to trial with Bolton half a decade prior, but the club eventually decided not to secure his services, which would cost them £3.5m later down the line.

The defender claimed that he was “really frustrated” when the Trotters didn’t acquire his services for free, which was a sentiment likely felt by all those who had done a U-turn on whether he could make it into the Premier League.

Although Bolton got four years of solid performances out of Steinsson, they could’ve had almost a decade and without the added financial burden of a £3.5m transfer fee.

Bolton Wanderers are still waiting to return to their Premier League heights

Just a few years after competing in Europe, Bolton couldn’t keep up with the Premier League’s increasingly expensive nature and were relegated from the division in 2012.

That proved to be the start of a rapid decline for Wanderers, who couldn’t even manage a play-off finish in the Championship before sliding down the second-tier, eventually suffering the drop to League One in 2016.

Bolton did manage to achieve promotion at the first time of asking but weren’t back in the Championship for long, as relegation to the third-tier presented itself again in 2019.

A successive relegation to League Two followed, and five years on, Bolton still find themselves battling it out in the EFL’s lower tiers.

Promotion to League One in 2021 should’ve been solid foundations to build from, but Wanderers haven’t been able to climb any further up the English footballing pyramid as of yet, despite going close to winning Championship promotion over the last few years.

When taken in contrast to where they were 20 years ago, seeing the likes of Anelka, Okocha and Steinsson perform for the Trotters seems like a lifetime ago.