Bolton Wanderers deal for El Hadji Diouf 2.0 backfired dramatically | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers' signing of Riga Mustapha was a poor one as they sought to replace El Hadji Diouf in the summer of 2008.

Back in the summer of 2008, Bolton Wanderers were embarking upon a new era, and they did quite a lot of business, but one thing they got badly wrong was the signing of Riga Mustapha, often known as Riga or Mustapha Riga to Bolton fans, from Levante.

The Ghana-born former Netherlands international formed part of a summer transfer window that was the first since a clean break from the Sam Allardyce era, with the previous summer having been taken charge of by Sammy Lee, Allardyce’s former assistant manager.

Gary Megson, who had already become an unpopular figure at the Reebok Stadium after their exit to Sporting CP in the UEFA Cup in the 2007/08 season, was the man at the helm as Wanderers sought to find a clean break from one era to the next.

Fabrice Muamba arrived from Birmingham City alongside the still club record signing of Johan Elmander from Toulouse, whilst Danny Shittu would eventually join from Watford and Poland international forward Ebi Smolarek would arrive on loan from Racing de Santander.

In the middle of that summer, though, as cult heroes of the past such as Ivan Campo and Stelios Giannakopoulos departed at the end of their contracts and other previously key squad players like Andranik Teymourian and Abdoulaye Meite would also depart, Bolton sanctioned the sale of El Hadji Diouf to Sunderland.

For a fee of £2.5 million, Diouf left Bolton after five years at the club that had brought about some extremely special memories, and on the same day Wanderers brought in a winger they believed could replace him, Riga Mustapha, but that was far from the case.

Riga Mustapha could not fill El Hadji Diouf’s boots at Bolton

During the previous five seasons, El Hadji Diouf had become more than just a cult hero at Bolton, genuinely establishing himself as one of the more entertaining and exciting wingers in the Premier League.

From a few excellent performances against Newcastle United and Arsenal in particular, to scoring the winning goal as Bolton knocked Atletico Madrid out of the 2007/08 UEFA Cup; Diouf was instrumental to the relative success that the Trotters’ enjoyed during their modern day golden era.

The Senegal international was always likely to leave a massive hole in the Bolton attack, and it was not one that was well filled by Mustapha, who had been the subject of legal wrangling for the deal to even be completed ahead of his move.

Having represented the Netherlands at youth level, Mustapha had become a key man for Levante in La Liga, scoring nine goals in 33 appearances during the 2006/07 campaign and then eight in 33 the previous season as the Valencians finished rock-bottom.

He was the star attraction of a poor side, and a poor side is what Bolton had become under the management of Megson, but Mustapha couldn’t adapt to England or to his new manager.

The Megson era hurt Bolton and hurt Mustapha

Stelios and Campo had left, a year after Gary Speed and Jay-Jay Okocha had departed, too, and the team that had been so memorable and fun for years was being broken up.

Diouf’s sale to Sunderland in the summer came six months after the sale of Nicolas Anelka to Chelsea and six months before the sale of captain Kevin Nolan to Newcastle United.

Bolton had been a club that could attract big name players, because the ambition was there to kick on and push into the top four, qualifying for the UEFA Champions League.

Instead, with the appointment of Megson after the sacking of Sammy Lee in October 2007, players and supporters recognised that it was the beginning of a circling of the drain for the club and, unfortunately for Mustapha, his arrival at the Reebok Stadium was ill-timed.

Playing a rudimentary defensive style of football that very rarely provoked a fan leaving their seat in excitement, Mustapha was always going to struggle under Megson, in comparison to a Levante side that played more progressive football, even if it was ineffective in terms of results, as that side did concede ten more goals than anyone else in the 2007/08 La Liga campaign.

He made just 17 appearances for Wanderers in the Premier League in the 2008/09 season and, aside from a reasonably impressive cameo against Manchester City from off the bench in a 2-0 win in the winter, he did very little.

Just three more appearances across all competitions was to follow in the next 18 months, and he eventually departed the Trotters for Cartagena in the Spanish second-tier, before finishing his career in India with Pune.

Diouf was a cult hero at Bolton, and a special player that they remember well, Mustapha was the wrong player at the wrong time and him being Diouf’s replacement was indicative of the way in which Bolton were travelling at that time.