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TWENTY-FIVE years ago this week, Bolton Wanderers transferred Tony Henry to Oldham Athletic for a fee of £20,000.

They were under extreme financial pressure at the time - Lifeline had been launched three months earlier because the bank had turned off the credit tap - and the Latics' cash bought the then chairman, Terry Edge, some temporary respite.

The deal had catastrophic effects, though, which would ultimately send the club tumbling to an all-time low.

Henry, bought for £120,000 from Manchester City 18 months earlier, was not only Wanderers' best player, he was also their top scorer.

In his final game before the move to Boundary Park, he scored his ninth league goal of the season in a 3-2 win against QPR that took John McGovern's Wanderers to a relatively comfortable 14th in the old Second Division.

Edge, presumably, thought they needed the cash more than they needed a goalscorer but, without Henry, Wanderers managed to score in just three of their remaining 11 games, of which they won one and lost seven. They were relegated.

Four years later they were heading into the Fourth Division for the first and, mercifully, the only time in their history.

Fast forward a quarter of a century and there are worrying parallels to be drawn with the way Wanderers have performed since they sold Nicolas Anelka.

According to Phil Gartside at the time, there were good football reasons as well as strong financial ones for selling his star striker and top scorer to Chelsea for £15million.

Unfortunately, the way things appear to be going, it was a bad deal on both counts.

Wanderers might have banked a £7m profit on a player they only signed 17 months earlier, but that is small change compared to what they stand to lose if they are relegated to the Championship, which, after five successive defeats, is now a distinct possibility.

Since Anelka left for Stamford Bridge, Wanderers have won just one league game out of nine and scored only five goals.

There are other issues that have contributed to the Reebok slump, which plumbed new depths when they lost their crunch survival clash to 10-man Wigan Athletic at the JJB last Sunday.

The roots can be traced back more than a year, to Sam Allardyce's unrest: the distractions caused by the Panorama bungs documentary; the frustration of not being given the cash to strengthen his squad in the 2007 January transfer window, when he was shooting for a Champions League place; and, consequently, his decision to quit Wanderers after eight incredible seasons.

Gartside then dropped a clanger by promoting Sammy Lee from the ranks, believing continuity would not only maintain the momentum but would even build on what Allardyce had achieved. Instead he got turmoil. In a matter of weeks, much of what had been built up over the preceding years was either dismantled or undermined.

Lee lasted less than six months. When he was sacked in October, Wanderers were bottom of the Premiership with just five points.

The appointment of Gary Megson was hardly greeted with universal acclaim, but, initially, the doubters were encouraged by results - four wins and three draws in 11 games - which lifted the gloom and hoisted the Whites out of the bottom three and heading towards the relative comfort of mid-table.

"Ginger Mourinho", as he became known, delivered a first home win over Manchester United for 29 years and even managed to run a successful UEFA Cup campaign, until his previously successful "shadow" squad bowed out at Sporting Lisbon, where his controversial team selection handed his critics a stick to beat him with.

All along, though, there was the Anelka issue. The France international had only signed an extension to his contract in August, but, once Chelsea made their move, he made it patently clear that he wanted out.

Wanderers argued that they were over a barrel. If they kept Anelka against his will, he could have become a liability. Better to have money in the bank than an unhappy player in the dressing room.

Even allowing for the fact that they felt they were unable to persuade their 11-goal top scorer to give them at least until the end of the season when, hopefully, they would still be in the Premiership, the least the fans expected of them was to sign a goal scorer who, if not in Anelka's class, could go some way at least to filling the breach.

Yet, although they spent more than £12m in the January window, the only striker they were able to bring in was Grzegorz Rasiak on loan from Championship side Southampton - a squad player at best.

Back in March 1983, John McGovern made a couple of decent loan signings in Brian Borrows and Stuart Gray, but he couldn't get a striker either - and Wanderers paid the price.

The stakes are considerably higher today, of course, but while the numbers - £20,000 compared to £15m - might be poles apart, there is a lot to be said for learning lessons from past experiences.

4:03pm Saturday 22nd March 2008

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