Anelka Signs and Fills Breach for Chelsea + Video
By dixon9
January 11 2008
Another protracted Chelsea transfer saga drew to a close at noon today when Anelka signed a 3.5 year deal for Chelsea. The Londoners paid 15M for the striker according to the Bolton Wanderers web site after placing an initial bid of 11-12M earlier this week. Today’s move makes Anelka the most paid for player in the world with combined transfer fees of around 85M (imagine if you were his agent!).
(Fee now understood to have been 12.5M with 1M add on if we win CL - Ed.)
The 28-year-old forward has scored 10 goals in around 18 PL games for Bolton so far this season and should eventually form a strike partnership with Didier Drogba when the latter returns from ACN duty.
The move makes perfect sense for Chelsea as Anelka is an established forward who should have no adaptation problems with the added bonus of not being tied for the CL, FA Cup or Carling Cup.
Bolton originally paid approx 8M for Anelka from Fenerbache and some reports stated that Bolton wanted in the region of 18 or even 20M for their prized possession, so the 15M figure represents a compromise after determination from Chelsea suits that we are not going to be ripped off on every transfer.
To be honest, I’m sure we would have held out at around 13M but due to the current horrendous injury crisis and the ACN absentees our hand was pretty much forced and a smaller percentage of “Chelsea Tax” had to be paid.
Despite being given the nickname of “Le Sulk” by the media some years ago, the Frenchman has supposed to have transformed his attitude and work-rate, indeed, even ex-colleague Martin Keown recently told the press that he was very shy rather than being aloof and is still a world class forward.
"It remains to be seen whether the calls of the African competition on some of England's leading clubs will decide the outcome of the Premier League and obviously Chelsea, who will be without four players, are the hardest hit. But I believe that signing Anelka would strengthen their cause; it would even strengthen Manchester United's. He is a world-class player.
I never understood the concerns some people had about him; I found him to be a breath of fresh air at Arsenal. It was just his leaving that left a bad taste. He was very young when he arrived at Highbury and quite shy. You would have to force him to greet you in the morning, but that was just because he didn't want to jump into your space. And because we had a few French players even then, there wasn't a great urgency for him to learn the language.
But he was great to both play and train with. I thought Gerard Houllier made a huge mistake by not signing him permanently when he was at Liverpool on loan. All I know is that he went on to keep Manchester City afloat and he's been doing the same for Bolton this season. When you think about the illustrious career Thierry Henry had at Arsenal - that could easily have been Anelka's."
This signing represents a great opportunity for a player in his prime to finish his career at the highest level – by coincidence he made his PL debut at Stamford Bridge.
His play at Bolton has been quite impressive this season, almost forming a one man attack, unselfish, strong running, good passing the ability to switch from left to right and of course, excellent finishing.He should not only give added fire power to the team but also valuable assists to others in scoring.
I would imagine he would start from the bench tomorrow although if he gets in a training session before the London derby at home to Spurs, he may well feature in the starting line-up.
During the next few games, taking into account our injury crisis and the ACN absentees, our line-up should look something like this:
Cech
Belletti Carvalho Alex Bridge
Essien Ballack J Cole
SWP Anelka Malouda
It remains to be seen what will happen when players return from injury and the ACN and if we change from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 – possibly a CL line-up of:
Cech
Belletti Terry Carvalho A Cole
Essien Lampard Malouda
Ballack
Drogba Anelka
Subs: Cudicini, Alex, Makelele, Mikel, Cole, Shevchenko, Kalou
And a domestic line-up of:
Cech
Belletti Terry Carvalho A Cole
Essien Lampard Ballack
Anelka Drogba Malouda
Still, at present, our current line-up possibilities are still (by our standards) limited so I’d expect to see 1-2 more new faces before the end of the month.
ANELKA COMPILATION VIDEOS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jS0rAC7p90
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYK5ldxBSyc
OPTA
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"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they don’t like it." P Kenyon.
Nicolas Anelka will have to win the Champions League with Chelsea before Bolton get the £15million they have agreed with the Stamford Bridge club.
Manager Avram Grant is celebrating his first transfer capture since taking over from Jose Mourinho, insisting the Frenchman can score the goals to fire the Blues to honours this year - and can be as good as cult hero Didier Drogba.
An initial payment of £12.5million will be supplemented by add-ons - one of which is a final £1m if Anelka helps Chelsea to a first Champions League title,
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"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they don’t like it." P Kenyon.