Bolton Wanderers hit the jackpot with £4m Aston Villa transfer agreement | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers hit the jackpot with the £4 million signing of centre-back Zat Knight from Aston Villa in the summer of 2009.

Bolton Wanderers were a stalwart of the Premier League from 2001 to 2012, often challenging the top six and producing some extremely memorable times for their supporters.

Overspending eventually led to their financial demise, sinking to League Two in administration eight years after their Premier League relegation, but one piece of business that was successful and can now be looked upon as cost-effective was the £4 million signing of Zat Knight from Aston Villa.

Having been a team to qualify for the UEFA Cup twice in the mid-2000s, coming just three points away from UEFA Champions League qualification on one occasion and then challenging for the top four again in 2007, the Trotters entered into a new phase in the summers of 2008 and 2009, seeking to sustain themselves in the top flight without ‘Big Sam’s Galacticos’ from that era.

In the summer of 2009, then under the management of Gary Megson, Bolton had a bit money to spend after the £15 million sale of Nicolas Anelka 18 months prior, and, alongside the signings of Sam Ricketts and Lee Chung-yong, they also brought in Knight from Villa, who had been capped twice by England in 2005 but had fallen out of favour at Villa Park.

Knight would go on to be an excellent servant for Bolton, both in their remaining years in the Premier League as well as for a couple of seasons in the Championship.

Zat Knight helped Bolton Wanderers steady the ship in the Premier League

In the 2007/08 season, Bolton required a flurry of results late on in the season to avoid relegation before a more comfortable mid-table finish in the 2008/09 campaign.

However, as the club as a whole began to stand still and thus move backwards in England’s top flight, Bolton were again set for a struggle with woeful performances in the first half of the campaign eventually leading to the sacking of Megson.

Owen Coyle took charge and a feel-good factor returned to the then Reebok Stadium with the former Burnley boss implementing a more attacking style with limited options in the final third.

That meant his defence required a high level of individual quality to make up for what was often quite a chaotic style of football, and that is where Knight began to shine as an out-and-out defender.

Knight was a fulcrum of the Bolton backline, but they were still struggling for performances before a stellar Man of the Match display against Wolverhampton Wanderers in late-February saw Knight score the only goal of the game in a crucial 1-0 win, beginning a run towards the end of the season that would see Wanderers eventually ease themselves to 14th in the table.

The 2010/11 season saw Bolton enjoy some brilliant times with the Trotters competing for a top four spot for much of the campaign once again in a team that had some real stars such as Gary Cahill, Stuart Holden and Daniel Sturridge.

Cahill took much of the plaudits in the defence that season, but Knight, alongside left-back Paul Robinson, was an unsung hero as Bolton reached the FA Cup semi-finals.

However, following a 5-0 defeat to Stoke City at Wembley Stadium, they then finished the season with five successive losses to drift hopelessly away from the European spots in the Premier League.

That said, it was undeniable to many that Knight was proving a real stabilising figure at the back, even keeping out January signing David Wheater of the eleven.

Zat Knight remained a loyal servant to Bolton

Following their relegation in the 2011/12 season, a campaign which had seen Coyle’s team ravaged by departures, sales, injuries and even Fabrice Muamba suffering a cardiac arrest, Zat Knight was one of many experienced players to stay.

Unlike the likes of Martin Petrov and Kevin Davies, though, Knight maintained a reasonably strong level, making 43 appearances for the Trotters as they narrowly missed out on the top six and the play-off places on the final day of the campaign, now under the management of Dougie Freedman.

Many supporters were often critical of Knight for being too immobile in the Bolton backline, but that perhaps missed the point and the view of successive managers probably gave more credence to just how important Knight was.

For example, in that run-in, despite the likes of Matt Mills and Tim Ream being on the books, it was Knight who formed a stellar partnership with on-loan Craig Dawson in the second-half of that campaign, in which Wanderers conceded more than one goal in a game on just five occasions in their final 23 games, propelling themselves from just outside of the bottom three and the relegation places to certainties for the top six before a 2-2 draw with Lancashire rivals Blackpool on the final day of the campaign.

As a result of being a key cog in a team that transformed themselves from a disorganised rabble to an effective machine at the back, Knight was named club captain the summer of 2012, following the departure of Kevin Davies.

That was a big decision for Freedman to make as the expectation was for Bolton to launch a title challenge in the 2013/14 Championship campaign but, instead, Knight departed on a free transfer a year later after a very disappointing mid-table finish.

Knight didn’t really get the credit he deserved for being a very solid and strong defender, often overshadowed by fellow centre-backs Cahill and then Dawson.

Knight was close to being an ever present for over half a decade at Wanderers, though, making nearly 200 appearances in total for the Whites and, for a fee of just £4 million, could be deemed as one of the bargains of that era of Bolton.