Jay-Jay Okocha has fondly recalled his time at Bolton Wanderers and believes playing in Europe with the club was like winning a trophy.
Okocha scored 18 goals in 144 games for Wanderers between 2002 and 2006 and became one of the club's true legends with a spell in a team that also included the likes of Ivan Campo, Fernando Hierro and Youri Djorkaeff.
He moved to Bolton from PSG and was part of the Wanderers team which played in the Uefa Cup in the 2005/06 season.
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Okocha is poised to play at his former stomping ground again this Sunday when he and a host of other Wanderers legends come together under former Whites manager Sam Allardyce for a charity game.
It is part of fundraising activity to raise money for the treatment of Bolton defender Gethin Jones' mother Karen, who has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
Recalling his time at Wanderers, Okocha believes taking the club to Europe was like winning a trophy and that though it took him time to understand Allardyce's philosophy, he believes it was easier once he did and feels his old boss had far more than just long ball tactics to his name as he explained the way his former manager liked to play the game.
He told talkSPORT : "People celebrate their achievements in different ways. People have got the opportunity to win trophies with big clubs, but when you are playing in a club like Bolton that had never played two seasons in the Premier League before I signed for them, playing in Europe, for me it’s like winning a trophy.
“I will say that I didn’t really do my research before going to Bolton, but as a football person, football comes first, not the city, not the lifestyle that comes with the city.
“But one thing was clear, the training ground was different. The attitude towards the games were different and I think also the mentality and the football style was difficult, it really took me a while to really understand what Sam’s philosophy was, but once I understood it, it was a bit easier then.
“After a while, I realised that he’s not really that kind of a long ball person, but it was all he had then. The players he had then can only play direct football with them because they haven’t got the ability to outpossess the likes of Arsenal or Chelsea or Man United, so he was playing to his strengths.
“But then, when we came in and when he started bringing players with better quality in the squad, we started playing a bit more possession football.
"But one thing he kept which was funny was in our own defence line, that got him crazy. He made it clear to us that whatever we are bringing into the team, our own ideas should be in the final third and not in our own half.”
“He’s a big lad so you have to respect his opinion, you have to respect that! But it’s always good to know what the manager wants from you.”
Okocha, who now lives back in his native Nigeria but whose family lives in the UK, also recalled one moment of magic on the ball from his time at Wanderers.
It came in a 2-2 draw against Arsenal at the Reebok Stadium in 2003 when after a short corner, he flicked the ball over Ray Parlour with a stunning piece of skill.
And the midfielder said it was something he was always planning to do.
He said: “It was something that I perfected and it’s all about doing it at the right time and at the right moment.
"We were trying to see out the game, play out a draw, which was a massive result for us and in that little corner, that was always on for me.”
