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Sam's transfer woe buiild-up
From the Bolton Evening News, first published Friday 8th Jul 2005.
RED tape is threatening to pile on the agony for Sam Allardyce as he suffers another summer of frustration.
The Wanderers boss is already reeling from as many as 10 knock-backs, despite having more cash to spend than ever before.
And he could miss out on three more prime targets.
Attempts to sign former Leeds midfielder, Olivier Dacourt, have stalled because the French international's club, Roma, is subject to a UEFA transfer embargo.
Now work permit regulations are giving Allardyce serious cause for concern.
Wanderers have agreed a deal with the French club, Lens, to take the Senegal midfielder, Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye, on a season-long loan. They are also flying in the 21-year-old Zambian striker, Mbesuma Collins.
Both will train at the Reebok next week but may struggle to obtain work permits because of their international records - Faye having missed a number of games for Senegal last season through injury, while Collins plays for a country outside the top 70 in the FIFA rankings.
Allardyce has managed to convert El-Hadji Diouf's loan from Liverpool into a permanent transfer for a fee of around £4m and has signed a pre-contract agreement with keeper, Ali Al-Habsi from Lyn Oslo, although he will not be available until January after the end of the Norwegian season.
But he suffered a major disappointment when the German midfielder, Dietmar Hamann, decided to stay with European Champions, Liverpool, and things have gone from bad to worse.
"It's as bad as it's ever been since we got promoted to the Premiership," Allardyce said.
"I've had constant knock-backs, starting with Dietmar Hamann, and now we are at the stage of real concern. We've gone very close but either the (selling) club has made the fee too high or the player hasn't fancied it.
"We're offering better money than before but can't seem to clinch the deal for the type of players we are looking for these days.
"There must be between six and 10 players we have approached, made offers to and negotiated with and the only one we've tied up is El-Hadji."
Allardyce admits he was disappointed when he was snubbed by the Finland international striker Mikael Forssel, who eventually moved from Chelsea to Birmingham, and accepts that Southampton striker, Peter Crouch, is now out of his price range.
He never considered bidding for either Kevin Phillips, who moved from Southampton to Aston Villa, nor Craig Bellamy who joined Blackburn from Newcastle yesterday, because neither would have suited the 4-3-3 playing formation he is committed to.
Allardyce reckons Real Madrid ace Luis Figo has priced himself out of the Premiership market by demanding £90,000 a week in wages but admits he was shocked to discover how much it would cost to sign Juventus' Igor Tudor.
"It's incredibly expensive and I don't really want to go that far, even though he is a good player," he added.
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