Sam Allardyce reveals how close he came to working with Man City manager Pep Guardiola

PEP GUARDIOLA is the one that got away for Sam Allardyce when he was Bolton manager.

Allardyce brought in several high-profile players during his time at Bolton including World Cup and Champions League winners.

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Sam Allardyce almost signed Pep Guardiola for Bolton[/caption]

The likes of Jay-Jay Okocha and Youri Gjorkaeff helped the Wanderers into Europe in the early noughties, but Barcelona legend Guardiola decided the project was not for him.

He even met Allardyce in his Barcelona flat in 2004, but Bolton instead signed Real Madrid legend Fernando Hierro.

Asked about who he came close to signing for Bolton, Allardyce told Undr the Cosh: “Pep. Met Pep in Barcelona. We got Fernando Hierro when Pep didn’t take up the offer.”

The former England boss also said he came close to signing Brazil legend Rivaldo for Bolton.

He met the former Barcelona star in The Lowry in Manchester but said the deal “never got down to terms.”

Allardyce had an eye for talent, old and young, and famously came close to signing Robert Lewandowski while at Blackburn.

He almost signed an unknown Luka Modric while in charge of Newcastle, but Mike Ashley’s arrival as owner scuppered the deal.

Allardyce said: “This was going to be a big challenge. We went through the whole package of who we were going to get rid of and who we were going to bring in, but unfortunately the club got bought under Freddy’s nose and Mike came in.

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“I needed six players because we got rid of the ones we talked about with Freddy, and then we were going to buy the ones we felt.

“We had Modric on our list, Luka Modric, he was £12m or something like that, but the budget didn’t happen.”