Anelka Back in the Big Time

Phillip Buckley

Nicolas Anelka has his move back to the big time. Champions League football, title challenges and the prospect of further honours now await him. It’s funny he ended up at Bolton Wanderers in the first place, because his talent does truly deserve to be displayed on the highest stage.

Of course, his talent has never been in question. Not really. It’s his attitude and off the pitch antics that have all too often landed him in hot water. Dubbed “the incredible sulk” by the media, Anelka has for years been a journeyman footballer having represented 8 sides in 13 seasons of professional football.

Truth be told Anelka has always been out of place in modern football, driven by the press with an insatiable demand for new stories, reporting even the smallest hint of a rift and misquoting players and managers alike for a good scandal. “If I’m invited somewhere and there are cameras, I don’t go, I don’t want to go” Anelka said. Nicolas just wants to play football and his quiet, almost shy personality means he often has trouble fitting in with team mates. “(In Madrid) it went badly (for me) with the other players, I did not have problems with them, but they did with me.” In amongst the preening primadonas of Real, Anelka was always going to have problems.

In fact, Nicolas would really be more at home joining you or me for a kickabout down the park, “If there were no fans, it would be even better for me. I could play in empty stadiums.” Reserved characters, those who don’t quite fit in with the crowd, have always struggled in football and it is through their sheer talent that they have succeeded at all. As Graeme Le Saux at pre-Gullit Chelsea, he liked to read books, actual books, not the Sun as his team mates were fond of. He didn’t have any interest in buying the fastest car he could, or visit clubs until the early hours to emerge with some football-crazed bimbo. For this, he was labelled as gay by many who played with him, despite being happily married with children.

That’s not to say Anelka hasn’t been the source of trouble himself more than once. The saying there is no smoke without fire holds true and Nicolas’ brothers who also act as his agents have hawked him around like a tout with tickets outside a ground on matchday. Arsene Wenger blames them for pushing Anelka’s move to Real Madrid, a move he still to this day bitterly remembers. “It is my biggest regret that he left Arsenal.” Money was of course the motivation and has been for so many of Anelka’s moves. Wenger notes: “His transfers have been amazing, he is a bank, no bank has made more money than Nicolas Anelka.” Anelka’s combined transfer fees have totalled £87M ($174M) making him the most expensive player in the history of the game.  

Some Liverpool supporters believe Gerard Houllier’s refusal to make Anelka’s loan move permanent at the end of the 2001/02 season was the beginning of the end for the Frenchman. Nicolas was a reformed character from his latter Arsenal days when he sought to move to Real Madrid, and then at Real Madrid where, as I’ve mentioned, he did not fit in. 4 goals in 20 games at Anfield doesn’t really tell the whole story and Anelka was dangerous whenever he played, He took the pressure of Michael Owen and Reds fans were excited every time he touched the ball. Houllier’s decision not to sign the Frenchman permanently and instead move for El Hadji Diouf was a strange one to say the least. Even more so given that Anelka had behaved so well at Anfield. Assistant Manager Phil Thompson was quoted as saying “He’s a shy lad (but) his behaviour has been impeccable.”

With the addition of Diouf, Bruno Cheyrou and Salif Diao, Houllier’s regime began to crumble and as Anelka exited, the pace of Liverpool’s collapse from runners-up in 2002 quickened drastically.

From Liverpool the stature of Anelka’s clubs lessened. He has stepped down to play for teams in the second tier of European football, spending time at Manchester City, Fenerbahce, before returning to England once again with Bolton.

The beneficiaries of this will be Chelsea. Not since 2002 has Anelka played for a club with genuine ambitions of doing great things. One can observe that Fenerbahce are amongst the best teams in Turkey, but playing outside their sparkling 52,000 seater arena at some of the Turkish Super Lig’s provincial backwaters closer to Baghdad than Berlin was enough for Anelka. One year in Turkey was enough to convince him that if he was going to be that close to Syria again, it would simply be because he was flying above it to holiday in Dubai.  

5 years outside the elite should have made Anelka hungrier and with Didier Drogba heading off to join the African Nations Cup party in Ghana, his chance should come straight away. Blues boss Avraam Grant has no reservations where Anelka is concerned: “Anelka can take the chances that will make the difference in matches.” Grant is also prepared to overlook the incredible sulk’s reputation “He’s learnt from his mistakes of the past. He had a bad reputation 10 years ago, but I could say the same about any of us.” Perhaps the biggest evidence of his Anelka’s character either being badly misreported or a thing of the past, is that he put in 2 years with Bolton Wanderers without any controversy raising its head. Operating amongst the technically limited pros that ply their trade at the Reebok Stadium, must, for someone as gifted as Anelka, have been an absolute nightmare at times. Imagine going from working with Raul to lining up next to Kevin Davies. Yet Nicolas did not moan.

Chelsea obviously have faith in Anelka having paid £15M ($30M) for him and secured his signature on a 4 ½ year deal, that, all being well, should see him end his career with the London club.

What Nicholas Anelka needs to do now is to actually become a solid pro like Kevin Davies. Not turn into the Bolton target man, of course not. But get his head down, work hard and show how much it means to be back on the biggest stage of all. He’ll have to do just that, competing with Shevchenko, Kalou, Drogba and Pizzaro means he won’t be guaranteed a place in the starting line-up.

Just so long as Anelka listens hard when that Champions League tune belts out loudly into the full stands of the Georgios Karaiskakis stadium in Athens this February, Chelsea could find themselves with not just the buy of the January window, but the buy of the season.