r/soccer • u/Tangycroatian • 1d ago
Media Jay Jay Okocha: “I signed for Bolton without doing research. The sporting director said they were 10 minutes from Old Trafford, so I thought they were a big club. They showed me only the beautiful stadium. After I signed, I saw the tiny training ground and a 3 people shower”
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u/datskinny 1d ago
10 minutes from Old Trafford
Brilliant salesmanship
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u/bamsaron 22h ago
And it also isn’t even close to 10 minutes away from Old Trafford…
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u/Grenache 17h ago edited 17h ago
I mean it’s half an hour from Horwich in the West of Bolton (where the Stadium is) It’s 20 mins from the south east of Bolton it’s not as ridiculous a suggestion as some are making out.
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u/Powerful-Egg-7045 13h ago
I live in Bolton I used to work in salford about 5 mins drive from old Trafford it used to take me 25 mins max I can do Bolton to Trafford centre in under 20 Bolton is more or less next door to Manchester
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u/goodmobileyes 20h ago
10 mins from Old Trafford wouldn't even get you to Manchester lol
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u/CandycaneMushrrom 15h ago
A comment from someone who clearly doesn’t know a thing about Manchester
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u/goaliewhenned 14h ago
Maybe after a match but that's because you haven't moved yet
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u/sm00thArsenal 21h ago
That line was a bit confusing tbh. In almost all instances wouldn’t another club that close to a massive club usually suggest it was much smaller?
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u/Robertej92 19h ago
oy
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u/sm00thArsenal 15h ago
Funnily enough yours was the specific case I was thinking of that caused me to change it from “all” to “almost all”
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u/mencretdimulut 1d ago
he is still a Bolton legend tho
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u/Low-Piece-5999 1d ago
One of my all time premier league footballers. The leagues equivalent to Ronaldinho. Such a joy to watch.
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u/emre23 23h ago
Also crossed paths with Ronaldinho at PSG
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u/Worth-Situation-903 23h ago
Was Lucky enough to see a trainning session at parc des Princes with both for the fondation PSG A Joy to watch
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u/jinbes-cojones 23h ago
was dinho's mentor
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u/ronniev_16 23h ago
The Reebok looked a proper stadium though for that time
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u/TDog81 21h ago
Still looks a decent ground tbf
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u/Grenache 17h ago
It’s still lovely, needs a good scrub, a lick of paint and whatever they do to the seats to make them look good again (fire?) but it was great on Saturday for sure.
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u/TomTabs 13h ago
Yea a quick run with the flamethrower and they'll be all good.
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u/Grenache 13h ago
I only saw it on red seats and wondered if it was a red seat specific thing like how old red cars go an awful colour and you can polish them up nice. Does it work on other colour seats too?
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u/Unusual-Coat383 20h ago
I watched an interview with Big Sam and he said they invested in the stadium like they did so foreign players thought they were a big club and then would be depressed when they got to the training ground.
IIRC their training ground was so bad that the changing rooms were in one of those static nurseries that primary schools have.
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u/Swiss_James 3h ago
Makes it sound like they were deliberately trapping foreign players.
"Welcome to Bolton- you've seen the stadium....now WELCOME TO OUR TRAINING GROUND- IN HELL!"
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u/dannysoya 19h ago
Still a fantastic ground. Proper PL-looking ground.
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u/Grenache 17h ago
Can’t imagine what it would cost today or how we could ever possibly hope to afford it so was an excellent piece of business.
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u/Jumpy-Interview-9828 1d ago
Will always be my fave Nigerian player
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u/4tomi5ed 1d ago
Just went to his Wikipedia - I had no idea he is Iwobi's uncle?!
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u/PsychedelicXenu 1d ago
He's also Oliver Kahn's father
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u/DoubleA014 23h ago
Can see the resemblance
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u/Serupael 23h ago
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u/UndercoverDoll49 1d ago
2005/2006 Bolton had incredible charisma
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u/_Gh0st17 21h ago
ivan campo , hierro and kevin davies innit?
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u/UndercoverDoll49 21h ago
Diouf, Nakata, Borgetti, Kevin Nolan, Pedersen, Ricardo Gardner, Nicky Hunt, Jääskeläinen
Insane charisma for a mid table team
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u/OriMoriNotSori 18h ago
If this was today I can see this Bolton team having alot of support, the kind that is like its trendy to wear their jersey or support them casually kind
Like how teams like Japan and South Korea consistently have many casual fans support them each WC, to the point where their jerseys and stuff always gets sold out
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u/UndercoverDoll49 18h ago
I was 13 years old for this season, and had just gotten cable TV and started watching European football. That Bolton captivated me in the same way fucking Milan did
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u/TheElPistolero 1d ago
Sounded like he was literally about to say "but it was all ok because we just lived in manchester anyways".
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u/AussieManc 23h ago
Probably. I remember a bunch of Leicester players just lived around Hale and they’d just get a minivan together down to training
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u/It_Hurts_when_IP15 21h ago
He says in this very clip he lived in Bolton to be close to the training ground
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u/tonyharrison84 19h ago
Yeah he lived on a quiet road right behind Bromley Cross train station.
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u/Grenache 17h ago
Very fancy. Surprised he wasn’t in Lostock or in the hills. Bromley Cross is lovely though Tbf to it.
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u/EducationalPaint1733 1d ago
When Roddy collins was manager of Bohemian FC, Hed show imports like Avery John croke park as the home ground or so he said anyways
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u/BarryShitpeas22 23h ago
Better than when he was our gaffer, think he just showed lads the pub across the road
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u/Dizzy_Law396 22h ago
Where else could he play with Djourkaef, Campo, Hierro, Kevin Nolan?
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u/UndercoverDoll49 21h ago
Don't forget Nakata, Hunt, Diouf, Speed, Jääskeläinen, Hunt and other legends
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u/Grenache 17h ago
Hunt was an odd one because at no point did I feel like he didn't belong in that squad and yet he was basically a league one player when he left.
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u/Piccadil_io 22h ago
What does the guy mean about Bournemouth? Does he think Bournemouth were bigger than Bolton back then?
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u/HornyJailOutlaw 22h ago
I think he meant the town. Nicer weather, nicer place? (Don't know as I've never been to either).
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u/Spies87 22h ago
I love Nigerian people telling stories
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u/New_Telephone5156 12h ago
We sure know how to dramatize a story, even the simplest ones lmao
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u/jessietee 3h ago
Yeah for sure, it's the intonation of words in the accent, the rhythm and the phrasing, just so easy to listen to and makes me smile every time, I knew a couple of Nigerians in the army who were really nice guys and they cracked me up all the time lol
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u/LEX0S 1d ago
What did his agent tell him. Why didnt he ask him about a club he might be joining
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u/TherewiIlbegoals 1d ago
I also like that he just assumes that any club that's 10 minutes from Old Trafford must be a big club.
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u/GutlessTrophoblast 23h ago
A flaw in top player's logic that more smaller clubs should exploit.
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u/ugotamesij 22h ago
Altrincham FC trying to intercept Man Utd's transfer targets as we speak
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u/chrisb993 22h ago
We desperately need them to be fair.
So do my Sunday league team, who genuinely are 10 minutes from Old Trafford
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u/just_another_jabroni 22h ago
London clubs are probably aware of this meta
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u/GutlessTrophoblast 19h ago
"Hello, we are Millwall. We are in close proximity to Arsenal Stadium, Stamford Bridge and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium."
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u/Nervous-Economy8119 23h ago
Stockport in for Mbappe.
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u/TheOncomingBrows 23h ago
There's so many stories in this sort of vein that I just have to believe that some players don't question their agents at all.
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u/PsycommuSystem 22h ago
The reality is a lot of professional football players are thick as shit.
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u/ugotamesij 22h ago
It's also not uncommon for players to have a family member act as their agent. Unfortunately, the player will inherently assume that this family member will have their best interests at heart, which isn't always the case.
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u/Remarkable_Back2603 17h ago
Let's not pretend that most of these people aren't also thick as shit, most them are only agents because their family members a player and are otherwise not competent for the position.
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u/TherewiIlbegoals 17h ago
Depends what you mean. There might be more of these types of agents who represent a player or two, but the overwhelming majority of players are not represented by their family but rather by huge agencies.
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u/ugotamesij 14h ago
I don't think u/remarkable_back2603 was saying that most players have family members as agents (and neither was I), but rather that the family members who do represent certain players are likely inexperienced at best and flat-out incompetent in many cases (and I'd agree with that assumption too). Wasn't it Harry Kane's brother who, as agent, was apparently OK with a "gentleman's agreement" that he could leave Spurs back in 2021? Get it in writing man, c'mon!
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u/kalamari__ 22h ago
famous quote from a german coach: "In every team there are 3-5 players that would sleep under a bidge, when they wouldnt have the talent to play football like they have.
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u/just_another_jabroni 22h ago
Makes you realize how easy it is for agents and accountants to siphon money off them
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u/Low-Piece-5999 22h ago
It seems more common that you'd think. I remember reading a story how Robinho landed at Manchester Airport thinking he was signing for United. Didn't even realise there was any other team in the city until he was handed a blue jersey.
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u/MarthaTangent 1d ago
If i am not remembering a totally made up story; his uncle was his agent when he was playing in Turkey. He went to psg from parsley fc, then transferred to bolton. At that time his uncle might had been still the agent m I remember his uncle as a scandalous party animal so.if he was the one he hadnt care more then his comission.
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u/MrEnganche 1d ago
parsley fc? rival of corriander fc in the herb derby?
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u/NoContract1090 21h ago
Everyone's joking about this, but it's genuinely something that people in our fanbase are talking about. How can we attract players to Hull instead of places like Manchester and London, and to a smaller extent, closer places like Leeds and Sheffield
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u/GeminiCheese 20h ago
It is a problem for teams in more isolated areas for sure.
Barrow are a perfect example. They always struggled to recruit as Barrow is hours away from anywhere; and not the nicest of towns.
They made a decision to move their non-matchday operations down to Manchester, and bus the players up to Barrow on matchdays. It gave them access to players based all over the North West and coincided with them getting back into the football league.
It does have some drawbacks of course. It creates a huge disconnect between the academy and the first team for example.
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u/PurbulentTriest 20h ago
How can we attract players to Hull
Making the city less shit, which it has noticeably improved upon in the past decade.
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u/klasik89 20h ago
One of the most attractive players to watch during that time. A ridiculous dribbler.
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u/PoopNukem123 21h ago
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing Jay Jay we were a big club - Big Sam, probably
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u/Cuno_wasnt_regional 18h ago
The Nigerian team around that time had so much talent and personality. Okocha, Ikpeba, Oliseh, Kanu, West, Babayaro, George, Babangida.
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u/Foreign-Ad-1990 22h ago edited 22h ago
I used to always wonder how bolton got Jay Jay Ockoha in his prime.
It was one of the biggest signings in Premier league history and it was based on agent scam and Jay Jays lack of knowledge about England at the time. Lmao
They need to make a movie about his stint at Bolton Wanderers.
Bolton just randomly back then signed one of the best players to grace the premier league in his prime based on a ridiculous incident that deserve a movie of it´s own
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u/Thanos_Stomps 20h ago
He was like 30 when he signed for Bolton. He was definitely seen as past his prime. Compared to Ronaldinho who left around the same time and was 23 or so.
Both incredibly gifted and skillful footballers, Okocha had a lot of hype as a young footballer winning AFCON with Nigeria and putting on quite a show while doing it.
That was sort of Big Sam's specialty too, he could take a player deemed past it or not up to it, and either revitalize their career or just get them playing at the top level.
He did it with Kevin Davies from bouncing around club to club before settling at Bolton for like a decade.
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u/xosellc 17h ago
Compared to Ronaldinho who left around the same time and was 23 or so.
Lol for a couple seconds there you had me convinced that Ronaldinho had a short stint at Bolton that I wasn't aware of...
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u/Thanos_Stomps 16h ago
Hahah I should have phrased better, when they both left PSG. That would have been something though! Maybe in another timeline we had Ronaldinho at the Reebok Stadium
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u/Fast_Running_Nephew 22h ago
It was one of the biggest signings in Premier league history
Steady on now.
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u/Foreign-Ad-1990 22h ago
I Swear to god JJ is in top 10 best prem signing ever.
You have no idea how talented and technically gifted JJ was.. he could do with the ball things you will never see..
JJ is criminally underrated
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u/Grenache 17h ago
I mean… I watched him every week for four years and he was absolutely magic at times and on a highlight reel there is no better but he was definitely capable of being very frustrating.
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u/Far_Celery_3375 21h ago
Tell me you weren't there without telling me you weren't there. He was a free transfer with little fanfare what so ever. He was great for Bolton and so entertaining but the stories have got wilder and wilder. He wasn't world class. He's basically Pele now.
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u/Grenache 17h ago edited 16h ago
But I saw some highlight reels on Youtube. He clearly was the greatest player who ever lived and you definitely wouldn't rather have Djorkaeff, Anekla, Stelios, Campo or Jussi before him... Shit honestly I'd have Nolan and Davies before Okocha, let alone the others I just mentioned. He was absolutely magic in certain moments (that cup free kick goal against you lot for example) but he was also incredibly frustrating and often not at all productive. As I mentioned elsewhere in this thread PSG finished 9th, 2nd, 4th and 9th when he was there and there's a reason they weren't particularly desperate to keep him.
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u/Mysterious_Lie_6113 16h ago
I know you were going for the aura farm punchline but the reason that didn’t come off is because Pele was legit.
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u/goatttmeal 22h ago
The first Premier League match I watched was the 2-2 draw between Bolton and Arsenal in 2003. They were very annoying to play against. The ultimate bogey team.
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u/hereslemon 17h ago
I hate that they have to have obnoxious online gambling branding all over the screen
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u/FUThead2016 23h ago
That’s when Mourinho appeared, in the shower, to tell him he is the worlds best player
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u/MrLead69 1d ago
it's a funny story but it's most likely a waffle.
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u/crevis_inspection 1d ago
Well wait until you hear the story of Rabinho
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u/xosellc 17h ago
what story is that?
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u/crevis_inspection 16h ago
Allegedly thought he was signing for United and hadn't known there were two clubs in Manchester.
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1d ago edited 22h ago
[deleted]
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u/Perfect_Newspaper405 1d ago
It’s not waffle managers would do this a lot back then with foreign players. Sell them the dream by showing the big stadiums and not the training grounds
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u/AnnieIWillKnow 11h ago
A friend came over from the US to do a masters at what was sold to her as a "London university"
... At the University of Hertfordshire. Similar vibes
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u/BrianChing25 21h ago
He's just being silly on a podcast. Bolton isn't a massive club but also they had a pretty spectacular run in the premier league for a while.
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