How Man City were duped into paying £400,000 for a player who never played for Bolton

Speaking on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, presented by BoyleSports, Allardyce lifted the lid on the extraordinary saga involving German international Dietmar Hamann - a deal that became, in his words, “an incredible learning curve” in the business of football.

“This was an incredible learning curve for me as a manager from day one to understand the buying, selling and transferring within the market,” he explained. “It doesn’t relate to the job now, and I think it’s wrong, you’re just the Head Coach and you don’t know what’s going on.”

Allardyce first tried to sign Hamann in 2005, only for Liverpool’s Champions League miracle in Istanbul to change everything.

“He agreed to come at the end of the season through his agent, without signing a contract,” said Allardyce. “When Liverpool got to the Champions League final and they were three-nil down, he came on at half-time and they won it. I then got a call saying, ‘Sorry, he’s not coming any more, he’s signed a new contract for Liverpool.’ I had to stomach that one.”

Two years later, the chance came again. Hamann’s agent rang to say the midfielder was finally ready to make the move to the Reebok. Confident the deal was done, Allardyce jetted off on holiday, believing he had secured the experienced holding player Bolton badly needed. But when he called to check in, something didn’t feel right.

“His agent told me that he wasn’t keen on moving to Bolton, he couldn’t find the right house or whatever,” Allardyce recalled. “I said, ‘You can stay in Liverpool where you are, it’s not too far, we’ve got two or three lads you can car share with.’ The answer to that was ‘no, can’t do that’ - and the antennas were tweaking.”

Those instincts proved correct. Manchester City had entered the picture, hoping to hijack the deal. But what they hadn’t realised was that Bolton had already officially registered Hamann as their player. The paperwork was complete, meaning any transfer to City had to go through Bolton first.

“I found out what’s going on, and Manchester City wanted to sign him,” said Allardyce. “My chairman Phil Gartside at that time gets on to Manchester City about this, that, and the other - both Dietmar and Manchester City were in deep water.”

With the situation threatening to get messy, Gartside struck a quick deal. Bolton agreed to release Hamann, but not for free.

“I asked for a lot more than what Phil actually accepted in the end, but we got £400,000 for a player who never even trained with us,” said Allardyce.

“It all added to the budget a bit, which was good. It doesn’t sound like a lot of money now, but it was then, certainly for somebody who never played for you. I was very disappointed in Dietmar and his agent, particularly, especially with it being the second time.”

According to Gartside, Hamann’s pre-contract move from Liverpool had never been fully finalised before City swooped less than 24 hours later.

However, official paperwork showed that the midfielder was registered as a Bolton player for two days, meaning Allardyce and Gartside were well within their rights to demand a fee.

The result? A £400,000 profit for a player who never even set foot on the training pitch.

It remains one of the most bizarre transfers in English football - and a reminder that, as Allardyce learned early in his career, in football’s transfer market, nothing is certain until the ink’s dry and the player’s on the pitch.