French striker Nicolas Anelka this month decided it was time for a new challenge, handing in a transfer request at Chelsea – which the club accepted – and now he’s on his way to Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua.
It’s a departure that won’t surprise too many, the Frenchman has fallen down the pecking order under the tutelage of new manager Andre Villas-Boas and you could say he has done as much as he can at the club. In the same breath though, it’s sad to see the man go – one of the Premier League’s more understated talents who burst onto the scene as a teenager with Arsenal.
With Fernando Torres the main focal point of Chelsea’s attack and the emergence of young talent Daniel Sturridge, first team opportunities have been very limited for Anelka this season. It’s a shame really, because despite being at the ripe old age of 32, he can still cause a number of problems with his electric pace and composure in front of goal.
Alas, Chelsea will move on, placing emphasis on the likes of Salomon Kalou who has waited in the wings for so long and proved himself often when coming from the bench. But for Anelka, he may look back on his time in the UK as patchy and possibly where he never discovered his true potential. Now, I won’t get too carried away – he played in the Premier League and Champions League with one of the wealthiest clubs in the country. That in itself is a success but the flittering between clubs, the sulks, the controversy over his Arsenal departure – they all add up to a very stop-start time in the Premer League, until his time at Chelsea of course.
As aforementioned, Anelka was poached by Arsene Wenger in February 1997, a precocious teenage talent from Paris Saint-Germain for a £500,000 fee. His first-team chances were limited in the 1996-97 season but in the following campaign Anelka featured prominently – scoring his first goal in England with a sensational strike against Man United in November. He completed the season with a double under his belt, helping Arsenal to the Premier League title and FA Cup, clinching the second goal in a 2-0 win over Newcastle Utd in the FA Cup final.
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The following season, Anelka won the PFA Young Player of the Year award and was once again on good form, rattling in 17 goals in 35 league appearances. However, he was to depart at the end of the season, for want of a better wage and developed the unwanted nickname of ‘Le Sulk’ due to his perceived lack of enthusiasm on the pitch.
Anelka joined Real Madrid for a fee of £22.3 million but struggled to settle and left after only a year at the club, re-joining the club at which he started his career – Paris Saint-Germain. Unfortunately, he encountered difficulties with then first-team coach Luis Fernandez and left after making only 34 league starts in two years. He would return to the UK where he joined Liverpool on loan, helping them to a late push for second in the league in the 2001-02 season. Fellow Frenchman Gerard Houllier – Liverpool’s manager at the time – decided not to offer him an extended deal though and Anelka left in the summer.
His travels then took him to Kevin Keegan and Manchester City, signing on the dotted line for a club record £13 million at the time and finishing his first season as top scorer with 14 league goals. In a generally successful spell, he scored 38 league goals in only 87 league starts for the club, eventually departing for Turkish club Fenerbahce. Anelka completed three years at the club, helping them win the Turkish Super Lig in the 2004-05 campaign before once again making a return to the UK, signing for Bolton Wanderers for a fee of £8 million at the start of the 2006-07 season, scoring 21 goals in only 53 league starts. After a very fruitful but short-lived 18 months with the Lancashire club, the striker eventually settled down in London, signing for Chelsea in the 2007-08 January transfer window for a fee of £15 million (at this stage taking his total career signing-on fees to a whopping £66 million!). This was his most successful period in the English game, scoring 59 goals in 185 league appearances and helping the club win the Premier League and FA Cup double in the 2008-09 season.
Quite a mixed career trajectory, you might say; Anelka never really settling at a club until signing for Chelsea, where he played for nearly four years. His total career signing on fees is quite a staggering figure and surely makes you think that if clubs like Real Madrid and Fenerbahce paid such grand fees for the player, they would surely expect a better return for their investment. Nobody can doubt the player’s ability though – his finishing has always been exemplary and his pace has, on many occasions, caused huge problems for opposing defences. He’s also very intelligent off the ball, quick to create space for himself and very much a ‘fox in the box’ type player. It’s been said that he’s often had personal differences with coaches and his departures from both Arsenal and then Madrid question his work ethic. One thing can’t be in doubt though – the Premier League will be losing a naturally great striker. Chelsea’s loss is most certainly Shanghai Shenhua’s gain.
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