Looking back, a history lesson, Anelka and Henry

This is the link to an article. Marcotti writes for CNNSI and his older stuff (last five years) is still up for those of us new and who just need to be reminded these old articles are great reading.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/gabriele_marcotti/news/1999/07/20/anelka_transfer/


This is an article about Anelka throwing a fit to leave Arsenal in 1999, and talks with Juve. for a transfer fee of $35 million PLUS they would THROW IN a little know french winger name Thierry Henry.

hindsight and history can be really funny stuff

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/gabriele_marcotti/news/1999/08/03/premier_league/

Here's another great one where that say Arsenal have no forwards other that Suker and Henry is the last in a string of center-forward hi-brids.

Thanks for posting that link, as I had almost forgotten what a monumental jerk that Anelka was.

While he may have gobs of talent, I seriously don't think Arsene will ever let him darken the door of Highbury ever again.

I have just one thing to say about that...

"Arsene knows!"

Hey is so great about finding and developing talent in the most unusual and hidden places.

Go Gunners!

What's laughable about that article are the price tags that were overpaid for such mediocrities as Michael Duberry and Chris Perry, among others. And stuff like "the promising Seth Johnson" is pretty funny, too.

Ah, hindsight's great.

Yeah, hindsight's great -- and Seth Johnson was pretty darn good at the time (remember, this was before he even moved to Derby)...

Reading this prompted me to look back at some of my other assesments/predictions. I got some stuff totally wrong, other stuff, I was a little closer to the mark...

I remember the Anelka transfer story well... and David Dein telling me personally he would never, ever sell to Real Madrid. Oh well..

The point about Arsenal not having genuine centerforwards apart from Suker is something I stand by however. Kanu and Bergkamp are not traditional strikers. At the time, Henry was a winger, a position he played for Juve, Monaco and France. Credit Wenger's genius for turning him into a centerforward.

At the end of the Anelka column, I write the following:

"And frankly, it's not as if Anelka is the only dominating young striker out there. If you want to talk star power, there are at least seven players aged 24 or under who are clearly a notch above Anelka: Del Piero, Andrei Shevchenko, Francesco Totti, Michael Owen, Raul, Marcelo Salas and Ronaldo. In fact, you could make an argument for the likes of Robbie Fowler, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Nicola Ventola, Hernan Crespo, Hidetoshi Nakata, David Trezeguet and Vincenzo Montella."

On the first batch, I think I was pretty darn close (with the obvious - and painful - exception of Salas, who totally lost his way).

On the second batch, Trezeguet, Van Nistelrooy and Crespo certainly turned out to be better (in my opinion). Montella maybe turned out about as good, Fowler could've been, possibly Ventola too if he hadn't had 67 knee operations. Nakata admittedly has been disappointing the last few years...

Did Marcotti really just respond to a post about one of his articles?

I thought Nicolas Ventola was going to be a STUD... he sorta disappeared off the map and is with some mediocre seria A team ya? peruggia or somesuch..

If that is you, could you poke Adrian Durham in the eye, live on air? then I'll know

god i used to love Salas, but he totally wasted his talent. Salas and Zamorano, those high flying Chileans. Sounds like a friggin figure skating duo though.

I'm a Marcotti convert. I think I arrogantly criticized a pre-World Cup 2002 piece of his in an e-mail because he predicted France to do poorly. Not only was he nice enough to reply civily, but it turns out he was right fricking on about the team. That's pretty impressive.

Hell, any time you do a prognostication piece you're probably not going to get everything right. But his future star strikers were pretty damn close.

So in 5 years Super Nic played for 5 different teams, right? Arsenal, Real, PSG, Liverpool and Man City.

"Anelka" is the French for "Cancer", I believe.

I am so pleased with my posting, now that a famous writer has responded to it (Marcotti, not Coach) perhaps I should have my handle retired.

: )

You've obviously read some of my drafts...*L*

Several friends of mine post on BS quite regularly and one of them pointed out this thread. So I dropped by.

As for some of the other questions raised here, here are my two cents...

1. Van Persie is very gifted. He can go past people, he crosses the ball well and he's big and physically strong. More in the Figo mold than the Overmars mold when it comes to wingers. He's also a bit of a hot-head, though he's still quite young and may well mature. In terms of the type of player he is, he fits the Wenger mold (gifted, athletic, good size, like Ljungberg or Pires), in terms of personality I'm not sure Wenger would go for him unless he knows he can work with him.

2. Ventola is at Siena on loan and is playing relatively well. I don't know if he'll ever fulfill his potential. He's one of those strikers who relies heavily on strength and athleticism and, following his injuries, he may have lost a step. Rather sad actually.

3. I don't think Adrian would appreciate being poked in the eye live on air -- but, if the situation arises I'll find a way to mention Big Soccer, how's that?

4. dwinkler, thanks for the kudos... the problem with predictions is that they're only educated guesses. They don't reflect a person's knowledge of the game (case in point: Wenger told me before the WC that he thought Argentina was, at the very least, going to make the semifinals and was his choice to win it all).

5. I don't think it's fair to have a go at Anelka for having played for five different clubs. It's something the English media love to do, list the number of clubs somebody has played for and then trash them as a result (they did this all the time with Vieri and Ronaldo for example).

Anelka signed with Arsenal when his amateur contract with PSG was expiring. Arsenal did pay some compensation, but it wasn't that different from what would have happened if Man U had signed Rooney before he turned 17. He had a chance to go to a bigger and better club, who would turn that down?

The move to Real is a different matter. He just demanded a move because, under pressure from his brothers and his agent, he had a chance to make a lot of money. So much for loyalty.

He went back to PSG because Real wanted to get rid of him. No issue of loyalty there. He sucked in Spain.

In his second spell at PSG, the club were in serious financial difficulty. They wanted to put him in the shop-window and so they loaned him to Liverpool. Again, it was a question of gettin rid of his wages for a while and setting him up for a move which would benefit PSG.

Which is what happened. Man City saw him, liked what they saw and signed him. No issue of loyalty there.

I guess the point is that it's easy to forget that while Anelka behaved like a brat at Arsenal, that was quite a few years ago, when he was twenty. Since then, from what I've seen on the pitch and what I've heard from one or two of his teammates (I don't know the guy personally) he has matured quite a bit. Footballers, just like people, grow up -- he is no longer under the influence of his brothers and he has become a better person and a better player too. Would I want him as my best man at my wedding? Probably not, but it doesn't mean he's stil the guy he was four years ago.

My $.02..........I started following Arsenal when when Anelka was the man at Highbury. I remember the saga over his move to Real and Wenger buying this young striker from Juventus.....all the while I'm thinking, "God, he can't possibly replace Anelka." Damn, shows what I know.......

Please see Henry thread for reasonsfor the Gunner fans to be nervous