Remembering Fernando Hierro at Bolton: A class act even at 37

For one brilliant season at Bolton, Sam Allardyce and Fernando Hierro enjoyed a fruitful working relationship. Their destinies became forever intertwined.

For a manager who has succeeded virtually everywhere he has been, Sam Allardyce has a terrible reputation. Whether it be because of his apparently boring tactics, the fact he doesn’t idly accept the criticism, or perhaps a combination of both those things and more, the one-time, one-match England manager is just not that popular.

It’s a very different story for fans of most of the clubs he has managed, however, not least Bolton.

And even those who are not fans of either the Trotters or Allardyce would have to admit that, for a few years in the 2000s, the two combined to create one of the most exciting teams in English football, a side that brought together British cloggers and ageing (but ludicrously talented) stars of the international game.

It was weird but beautifully effective.

We have already published tributes to two of the stars of that era in Jay-Jay Okocha and Youri Djorkaeff, but equally worthy of celebration is Fernando Hierro, former captain of Spain and Real Madrid, whom Allardyce signed in the summer of 2004.

Hierro was one of the most decorated players in the game, having won the Spanish league five times and the Champions League three times with Madrid.

He also had a better goalscoring rate than most of Bolton’s strikers at the time: his absurd one-in-four for Madrid put Kevin Davies (one in five at Bolton) to shame.

Despite Big Sam’s talent for attracting superstars, Bolton’s capture of Hierro was surprising. After spending a year in the Middle East, the Spaniard seemed halfway to retirement.

Ever the fighter, however, Hierro decided that a move to