The enigmatic career of Nicolas Anelka

Sayros

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I remember back in France, he came into the national team and him and Zidane struck an immediate understanding, which was not the case with an other promising young forward by the name of Thierry Henry. There was hype that he would be our R9 because people get overly excited after a few games. Unfortunately, Anelka shows that talent is such a small part of why someone becomes successful. His attitude, mentality, and thin skin made him someone difficult to relate to, befriend, or even understand at times. His move to Real Madrid was the start of his downfall IMO, because he was too young, immature, and insecure to really integrate with a locker room of that prestige and personalities, and I'm not a psychologist or anything but it feels as if it closed him in further on himself and he became more and more difficult to deal with.

At the end of the day, he's still had a great career, he's not Hatem Ben Arfa by any means, but he certainly could have been so much more, one of many players you can say that about.
 

SambaBoy

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Houllier had the option of signing him after his loan spell for £12m in 2002. Instead he went for Diouf of the back of the World Cup. Terrible decision in hindsight.
 

Klopper76

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Houllier had the option of signing him after his loan spell for £12m in 2002. Instead he went for Diouf of the back of the World Cup. Terrible decision in hindsight.
£20 million on Diouf, Diao & Cheyrou. Anelka would’ve been a better signing than all three combined.
 

SambaBoy

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£20 million on Diouf, Diao & Cheyrou. Anelka would’ve been a better signing than all three combined.
Yeah I read a piece from Gerrards' autobiography and he knew after a week of training with the 3 of them that the club had made a big mistake.
 

GuybrushThreepwood

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Houllier really blew an opportunity for Liverpool to kick on in the summer of 2002 with those poor signings. I think from memory they got off to a very good start in the 2002/2003 season in the league, before their form nose-dived and Jerzy Dudek began to make a series of blunders.

Houllier did have a habit of proclaiming practically every reasonably talented young player coming out of France or coming from a French speaking country as the next Zidane, Henry, Vieira etc.
 

Shaw Mee Tah Mané

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Houllier did have a habit of proclaiming practically every reasonably talented young player coming out of France or coming from a French speaking country as the next Zidane, Henry, Vieira etc.
Remember it was big expectations for Le Tallec and Sinama Pongolle. Bigger talents than CR7 they said....
 

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Loved him. Definitely underappreciated and probably down to an unfairly bad rep in my opinion. It's interesting to wonder when looking back if he was a victim of "rich, young, black footballer" type media bias/assassination as the likes of Sterling and Pogba in the modern era have been. I'm not saying he didn't make mistakes, he certainly listened to some wrong people in his younger days but I think he got an overly raw deal for far too lengthy a time.
I would tend to agree with this. It’s hard to recall what Anelka actually did wrong to justify the bad rep.
 

McGrathsipan

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Paul Merson said he was so good at Arsenal, he thought he would be as good as Ronaldo Nazario
That was the kiss of death so. Paul Merson is never right.

I think had he had a better manager early on he would have been much better.
Probably a better agent too. He was too young to be at Madrid.
 

DVG7

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I genuinely believe that if you give Anelka the Attitude of Ronaldo, you’re talking GOAT #9 candidate
 

sun_tzu

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European Champion - 2000 France
Champions League - 2000 (Real Madrid), 2012 (Chelsea)
Premier League - 1998 (Arsenal), 2010 (Chelsea)
FA Cup - 1998 (Arsenal), 2009, 2010 (Chelsea)
Serie A - 2013 (Juventus)
Turkish Super Lig - 2005 (Fernabache)
The ultimate mercenary.
He'd have been one of the first to take China money if he'd been around these days.
Actually I dont think he got a CL medal in 2012 as he left to join Shangahi Shenhua on 1st Jan 2012... for €12m per wages for a year
 

Number32

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Would have Arsenal have bought Henry if Anelka stayed? They could've had very different careers.
Yes they would still bought him. Henry was unsettled at Juve and demand a transfer request to Arsenal, He was not a replacement of Anelka. They still had Suker and Bergkamp leading the front line, so Wenger just wanted to add more fresh young striker to the squad.

Anelka - Henry would gave Arsenal more titles between 2000-2005, but no invincible record. Because Wenger would not bought Wiltord, who was one of the most consistent player in that season.

I'd take that because We had won the titles in 2001 and 2003 with a big luck, then Moscow 2008. His enigmatic career was a blessing for us.
 

sun_tzu

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Yes they would still bought him. Henry was unsettled at Juve and demand a transfer request to Arsenal, He was not a replacement of Anelka. They still had Suker and Bergkamp leading the front line, so Wenger just wanted to add more fresh young striker to the squad.

Anelka - Henry would gave Arsenal more titles between 2000-2005, but no invincible record. Because Wenger would not bought Wiltord, who was one of the most consistent player in that season.

I'd take that because We had won the titles in 2001 and 2003 with a big luck, then Moscow 2008. His enigmatic career was a blessing for us.
Imagine Berkamp behind Henry and Anelka (on his arsenal form)
 

Number32

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Imagine Berkamp behind Henry and Anelka (on his arsenal form)
Would be the greatest trio in PL history. Bergkamp was injury prone though, but surely they wouldn't let Leeds United beating them at home to give us the title.
 

Dancfc

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Actually I dont think he got a CL medal in 2012 as he left to join Shangahi Shenhua on 1st Jan 2012... for €12m per wages for a year
He was given a medal for being part of the run, as were Alex and AVB.
 

horsechoker

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Wenger's plan was to pair Henry and Anelka in arsenal. Henry on the left and Anelka in central. If Anelka stays in Arsenal at that time he probably would have a more stable platform to grow for his career. He should have got a better advisor and agent rather than using his brothers.

https://www.arsenal.com/news/wenger-id-have-signed-henry-no-matter-what
Interesting but didn't Henry thrive in the centre and not on the left where he had a torrid time at Juve
 
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Yes they would still bought him. Henry was unsettled at Juve and demand a transfer request to Arsenal, He was not a replacement of Anelka. They still had Suker and Bergkamp leading the front line, so Wenger just wanted to add more fresh young striker to the squad.

Anelka - Henry would gave Arsenal more titles between 2000-2005, but no invincible record. Because Wenger would not bought Wiltord, who was one of the most consistent player in that season.

I'd take that because We had won the titles in 2001 and 2003 with a big luck, then Moscow 2008. His enigmatic career was a blessing for us.
or Man Utd would have won more titles. Ridiculous assumption based on fantasy.
 

ThierryHenry14

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Interesting but didn't Henry thrive in the centre and not on the left where he had a torrid time at Juve
Henry was a winger in Monaco and Juventus, so I would assume in a 442 Henry and Anelka would play as strikers but Henry would drift more to the left.

Anyway I believe Anelka would have a lot more success in his career if he had stayed in Arsenal with Wenger as his coach and the french influence in arsenal at the time. He would have Bergkamp created chance for him and he would still be the focal attack point of the team.
 

Number32

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or Man Utd would have won more titles. Ridiculous assumption based on fantasy.
Or Leeds or even Pool had won it, you know that's not an assumption. Arsenal's players were more talented than ours in early 2000's, even the media had suggested Sir Alex to retire in 2002 and expected Man United a fresh rebuild.
 

Tel074

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He really should never have left Arsenal another couple of years there and it could have been a totally different story for him. But it wasn't
 

GuybrushThreepwood

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During Arsenal's 1998 title charge, one of Anelka's best performances was (unfortunately) against Blackburn when they thumped us 4-1 at Ewood Park. Arsenal's performance during the first half was among the best that I've ever seen from any team at our ground. I think he was in stunning form in a previous game when they beat Newcastle, plus he scored in the FA Cup final. He was only 18/19 then.
 

Sayros

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I don't think him staying at Arsenal would have changed much. His problem was always between his ears IMO, and I'm not convinced coaching or club circumstances would have changed much about his career. He would have found a way to mess things up.
 

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Mega talent. Rapid, slick, good finisher and especially ruthless 1v1 with the keeper. Not many players are capable of scoring 19 goals at 19 in the Premier League. Horribly advised which only served to exacerbate his heightened sensitivity and general surliness. It’s hard to envisage a more promising set of opportunities than the three clubs he’d played for by the age of 20: a PSG who were one of the foremost sides in Europe, an evolving Arsenal accelerating into the big time under Wenger’s careful guidance of youth, and the biggest and best team in the world under a manager who would become one of the most successful of all time.
 

GuybrushThreepwood

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Yes Anelka backed up his 1997/1998 breakthrough with an excellent season and record in 1998/1999.

I think he scored against Utd (of course the benchmark when it comes to big games) in 3 out of Arsenal's 4 league games against them in the 1997/1998 and 1998/1999 seasons.

I think he had a pretty good goal scoring record against Arsenal with both City and Bolton. The Bolton team with Anelka, Davies, Diouf and Nolan did look very strong during first half or so of the 2006/2007 season (I think they were 3rd), before their lack of squad of depth (their failure to strength during that January transfer window let to Allardyce leaving the club later on) began to tell.
 

FrankDrebin

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Looked a potential world beater under Wenger,especially in his second season.
 

Makelele

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Has anyone caught the documentary on Netflix? Heard it is quite impressive.
 

WeePat

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I always felt the Le Sulk label was a tad unfair, and it probably is, but listening to Anelka explain all the controversial moments in his career from his own perspective, he does seem like a headstrong person who can only be comfortable in very particular environments.
 

Tony Babangida

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He was like a cheat code in fantasy football. Guranteed goals for a bargain price usually.
 

DarkLord

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He always strike me as a type of lone wolf, very dark personality and hard to make friends with. Always sulking. Don't think I've ever seen him smile once. Still has a great career. He's won more trophies than some better footballers, almost every trophy he could have possibly won.
 

Snow

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I genuinely believe that if you give Anelka the Attitude of Ronaldo, you’re talking GOAT #9 candidate
You can say that about a lot of player. David Beckham had a similar attitude to Ronaldo. Can't think of anyone else in recent United history.
 

Charlie Foley

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I’m bored so I just added up all his transfer fees and he was almost a £100 million pound player (99.8)
I think his problems were reputation, nicknamed ‘le sulk’ and represented by his brother. Better players than Anelka have failed at Madrid but he was kind of eclipsed at both Arsenal and France by Henry.
Wasn’t there a statistic that at one point (before things went crazy) he was cumulatively the most expensive player in the world? I’m sure it was him.