Just as Nicolas Anelka moves into a position to gun down his
former side, Arsène Wenger has described the striker's
departure from Arsenal as his "biggest regret".
The Frenchman looked set for a glittering career in red-and-white
when he arrived from PSG in February 1997, aged 17. Within a year
he was the spearhead of the Arsenal attack and helping them towards
the 'double'. However he moved the following season leaving
memories of 28 goals in 90 games and an overwhelming sense of what
might have been. A meandering career took him to Real Madrid, back
to PSG, Liverpool, Manchester City, Fenerbache and Bolton. On
Friday he signed for Chelsea in a reported £15 million move.
"It is my biggest regret that he moved from Arsenal at that
time [in 1999] because I felt at that time he was a star
here," said Wenger at his pre-match press conference on
Friday. "When he left he was a regular member in the French
squad. He moved to Real Madrid, Thierry Henry moved here and
Thierry played in the European Championship but Nicolas didn't
play.
"I still believe that at that time it was a big mistake that
move. But there are two lessons: the first one is you need to be at
the right club at the right moment. And the second is that
when you have as much talent as Nicolas you can always bounce back
because the talent at that level is not everywhere."
Wenger admitted a reconciliation was in his mind after another
fleet-footed French striker left last summer.
"When Henry wanted to leave you always consider if you are
strong enough," he said. "I decided to go with Bendtner
and then I signed Eduardo. But you consider all the strikers
available.
"I feel that Nicolas has had a funny career because he has the
talent to play in every club in the world… and he
has played in nearly every club in the world. There's Arsenal,
Real Madrid, PSG, Liverpool, Chelsea but in between it looks like
he takes some breathers below.
"I feel this signing for Chelsea could be decisive because
they will not feel the absence of Drogba as much. But they have so
much talent that when Drogba comes back and they play with him and
Anelka, which is very possible, somebody else will have to move
out.
"So the good news is that they have one world class player
more, but they have to move another world class player
out."
