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Sammy Lee always knew he had big boots to fill after succeeding Sam Allardyce but the speed at which his short reign at Wanderers unravelled is still a marvel 10 years on. Here we take a look at one of the shortest tenures in Premier League history and ask, why did it all go wrong so quickly?
Whether Sammy Lee was doomed from the get-go, or just a victim of circumstance, his brief spell as manager of Bolton Wanderers marked the spectacular final days of a golden generation.
It is a decade since former owner Eddie Davies gave the nod to late-chairman Phil Gartside to pull the plug on one of the Premier League’s shortest-ever reigns.
Lee’s frenetic 170 days in charge contained 14 games, three victories, 12 signings and the complete disintegration of the structure which had helped Wanderers secured four top-eight finishes in four years.
The stormy period was characterised by dressing room upheaval, boardroom bitterness and the sad fall from grace of an honourable man who had the club at heart.
Lee had been installed just 24 hours after Sam Allardyce’s resignation was received on April 29, 2007.
The out-going boss had recommended his former assistant for the job and he oversaw the last two games, defeat at West Ham and a home draw with Aston Villa, to secure UEFA Cup qualification for the second time in the club’s history.
Lee had played briefly for Bolton in the mid-1980s but had been hand-picked by Allardyce after the departure of Neil MacDonald and Phil Brown from his coaching staff a few years earlier. His arrival had been heralded as one of the major factors in Wanderers' continued success.
There was an argument to suggest Lee was best qualified for the job, given his rich coaching background with England and Liverpool. And that was certainly the school of thought to which Gartside subscribed.
But even in the first week after Allardyce’s departure, the personal rift between chairman and former boss started to overshadow the new man in the hot-seat.
“You take a key man out of a team but you replace him with someone who is even better. That’s where I am at,” he insisted. “I have known Sammy a long time. He is a good coach with great contacts. If you look at his credentials to what Sam’s were when he joined they are better.
“It is a better job today and I am not sure you would have given it to Sam Allardyce now. Sammy has a reputation beyond where Sam was in terms of his international playing career.”
Comparisons with the man who had led Wanderers to unimaginable heights did little for Lee, and that may have played a part in his desire to stand-out against his former colleague.
Success had been built on a style of play which was not necessarily popular with the purists but Lee – born and raised the Anfield way – was determined to change all that.
Some signings had already been ear-marked by Allardyce, such as Swiss international Blerim Dzemaili, goalkeeper Adam Bogdan, full-back Jlloyd Samuel and French defender Gerald Cid, but Lee wasted no time hauling in another eight players from all corners of Europe.
One deal, involving midfielder Gavin McCann, would end up in a bitter legal dispute with his agent Tony McGill, which would rumble on with the club for several years.
Sweden international Christian Wilhelmsson was signed on loan, Norwegian striker Daniel Braaten and Icelander Heidar Helgusson all added to a completely overhauled squad which fared well over the summer – finishing runner-up in the Peace Cup in Korea and beating the likes of Racing Santander and Espanyol.
Yet behind the scenes, the foundations were being chipped away. Allardyce accepted a job at Newcastle United and immediately started to plunder the 21-man back-room he had assembled at Bolton for his trusted lieutenants like Mike Forde and Mark Taylor. Defections to the North East proved a distraction for Gartside and a frustrated board and also spilled over on to the training ground, where Lee was struggling to get his players tuned in to a new philosophy.
Defeat against Allardyce’s Magpies on the opening day was a nightmarish start and only served to heighten the bitterness in the background.Lee had not been handed huge sums to invest in new players but having learned what toll the previous UEFA Cup schedule had taken on the squad, he had been keen to avoid the same pitfalls.
Key players failed to fire, however, and the new arrivals appeared incongruous with the existing squad.
A solitary league win came at home to Reading but cracks had already started to appear in Lee’s relationship with some of his senior players. Gary Speed’s decision to step down as a coach resulted in conflicting accounts from inside and outside the dressing room but did little for the manager’s job security.
From a fair way out the writing appeared on the wall. After a meek 1-1 draw against Macedonians Rabotnicki in Skopje, The Bolton News’ former chief scribe Gordon Sharrock reasoned: “In the 115 days since Allardyce walked out, the Wanderers hierarchy have witnessed a chain of events that is threatening to undermine all the good work of the last eight years.”
Another five games rolled on, which did include a League Cup win at Fulham, progression in the UEFA Cup with a slender home win and a creditable draw at home to Tottenham. But it became evident to owner Davies that Lee, a renowned coach, had not made the transition to manager in his first time of asking.
More and more fans were claiming the appointment had been rushed, or that it had been geared as a slight on Allardyce.
A 1-0 defeat at Chelsea proved the final straw, where Lee had dropped Speed and Kevin Nolan from his side.
He was sacked during the following international break, his reign now the third-shortest in Bolton’s history, tucked in behind the successive failures of Jimmy Meadows and Jimmy McIlroy in the early 1970s.
Wanderers maintained their Premier League status for another four years but they were never again the same animal under Gary Megson or Owen Coyle as football’s landscape shifted.
The squad which had bloodied the nose of the Premier League’s elite so often was coming to the end of its shelf life and while Lee’s attempts to refresh had proved a failure, it was clear a major overhaul was necessary to safeguard a top flight place.
Some speculate Allardyce saw what was in store for his club, hastening his exit and leaving Lee caught in the crossfire. In that respect, would any manager have coped with the situation Lee inherited?
The Liverpudlian later returned to Wanderers to work alongside Jimmy Phillips in the academy and was even mooted for a promotion in Owen Coyle’s coaching set-up when the Scot’s job came under pressure in 2013.
His coaching credentials remain highly-regarded but he never again took a permanent managerial post.
Earlier this season he lost his job as assistant to Frank De Boer at Crystal Palace when the Dutchman was sacked after just four games, proving that football has lost none of its ruthlessness in the last decade.
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Whether Sammy Lee was doomed from the get-go, or just a victim of circumstance, his brief spell as manager of Bolton Wanderers marked the spectacular final days of a golden generation.
It is a decade since former owner Eddie Davies gave the nod to late-chairman Phil Gartside to pull the plug on one of the Premier League’s shortest-ever reigns.
Lee’s frenetic 170 days in charge contained 14 games, three victories, 12 signings and the complete disintegration of the structure which had helped Wanderers secured four top-eight finishes in four years.
The stormy period was characterised by dressing room upheaval, boardroom bitterness and the sad fall from grace of an honourable man who had the club at heart.
Lee had been installed just 24 hours after Sam Allardyce’s resignation was received on April 29, 2007.
The out-going boss had recommended his former assistant for the job and he oversaw the last two games, defeat at West Ham and a home draw with Aston Villa, to secure UEFA Cup qualification for the second time in the club’s history.
Lee had played briefly for Bolton in the mid-1980s but had been hand-picked by Allardyce after the departure of Neil MacDonald and Phil Brown from his coaching staff a few years earlier. His arrival had been heralded as one of the major factors in Wanderers' continued success.
There was an argument to suggest Lee was best qualified for the job, given his rich coaching background with England and Liverpool. And that was certainly the school of thought to which Gartside subscribed.
But even in the first week after Allardyce’s departure, the personal rift between chairman and former boss started to overshadow the new man in the hot-seat.
“You take a key man out of a team but you replace him with someone who is even better. That’s where I am at,” he insisted. “I have known Sammy a long time. He is a good coach with great contacts. If you look at his credentials to what Sam’s were when he joined they are better.
“It is a better job today and I am not sure you would have given it to Sam Allardyce now. Sammy has a reputation beyond where Sam was in terms of his international playing career.”
Comparisons with the man who had led Wanderers to unimaginable heights did little for Lee, and that may have played a part in his desire to stand-out against his former colleague.
Success had been built on a style of play which was not necessarily popular with the purists but Lee – born and raised the Anfield way – was determined to change all that.
Some signings had already been ear-marked by Allardyce, such as Swiss international Blerim Dzemaili, goalkeeper Adam Bogdan, full-back Jlloyd Samuel and French defender Gerald Cid, but Lee wasted no time hauling in another eight players from all corners of Europe.
One deal, involving midfielder Gavin McCann, would end up in a bitter legal dispute with his agent Tony McGill, which would rumble on with the club for several years.
Sweden international Christian Wilhelmsson was signed on loan, Norwegian striker Daniel Braaten and Icelander Heidar Helgusson all added to a completely overhauled squad which fared well over the summer – finishing runner-up in the Peace Cup in Korea and beating the likes of Racing Santander and Espanyol.
Yet behind the scenes, the foundations were being chipped away. Allardyce accepted a job at Newcastle United and immediately started to plunder the 21-man back-room he had assembled at Bolton for his trusted lieutenants like Mike Forde and Mark Taylor. Defections to the North East proved a distraction for Gartside and a frustrated board and also spilled over on to the training ground, where Lee was struggling to get his players tuned in to a new philosophy.
Defeat against Allardyce’s Magpies on the opening day was a nightmarish start and only served to heighten the bitterness in the background.Lee had not been handed huge sums to invest in new players but having learned what toll the previous UEFA Cup schedule had taken on the squad, he had been keen to avoid the same pitfalls.
Key players failed to fire, however, and the new arrivals appeared incongruous with the existing squad.
A solitary league win came at home to Reading but cracks had already started to appear in Lee’s relationship with some of his senior players. Gary Speed’s decision to step down as a coach resulted in conflicting accounts from inside and outside the dressing room but did little for the manager’s job security.
From a fair way out the writing appeared on the wall. After a meek 1-1 draw against Macedonians Rabotnicki in Skopje, The Bolton News’ former chief scribe Gordon Sharrock reasoned: “In the 115 days since Allardyce walked out, the Wanderers hierarchy have witnessed a chain of events that is threatening to undermine all the good work of the last eight years.”
Another five games rolled on, which did include a League Cup win at Fulham, progression in the UEFA Cup with a slender home win and a creditable draw at home to Tottenham. But it became evident to owner Davies that Lee, a renowned coach, had not made the transition to manager in his first time of asking.
More and more fans were claiming the appointment had been rushed, or that it had been geared as a slight on Allardyce.
A 1-0 defeat at Chelsea proved the final straw, where Lee had dropped Speed and Kevin Nolan from his side.
He was sacked during the following international break, his reign now the third-shortest in Bolton’s history, tucked in behind the successive failures of Jimmy Meadows and Jimmy McIlroy in the early 1970s.
Wanderers maintained their Premier League status for another four years but they were never again the same animal under Gary Megson or Owen Coyle as football’s landscape shifted.
The squad which had bloodied the nose of the Premier League’s elite so often was coming to the end of its shelf life and while Lee’s attempts to refresh had proved a failure, it was clear a major overhaul was necessary to safeguard a top flight place.
Some speculate Allardyce saw what was in store for his club, hastening his exit and leaving Lee caught in the crossfire. In that respect, would any manager have coped with the situation Lee inherited?
The Liverpudlian later returned to Wanderers to work alongside Jimmy Phillips in the academy and was even mooted for a promotion in Owen Coyle’s coaching set-up when the Scot’s job came under pressure in 2013.
His coaching credentials remain highly-regarded but he never again took a permanent managerial post.
Earlier this season he lost his job as assistant to Frank De Boer at Crystal Palace when the Dutchman was sacked after just four games, proving that football has lost none of its ruthlessness in the last decade.
Source