Paul Merson has revealed Nicolas Anelka could have been a better player than Ronaldo de Lima after both played at Arsenal.
Anelka had a journeyman career but played for some of Europe’s top clubs and was expected to be a world star.
The Frenchman played for Arsenal, Real Madrid and Chelsea, among other clubs, but it is widely believed that he did not reach his full potential as a player.
Merson spent some months with him at Arsenal and believed Anelka could have been the best player in the world.
Merson told the League of Legends show: “I played with a kid who came over to England, and I definitely thought that he was going to be better than the Brazilian Ronaldo – and that was Anelka.
“When he came over, he was about 17 and he was leaving Tony Adams and Steve Bould on their backside every two minutes.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Anelka is one of the best youngsters we ever signed, and so much was expected from him at Arsenal.
He could have done much better than he did before he left if he was not unsettled at the club.
It is the same story at Real Madrid, and he will not feel he lived to his fullest potential as a player.
Here is the latest DUBLIN ARSENAL video reviewing our latest defeat in the FA Cup against Liverpool
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
He was astonishing in his last season at Arsenal. France came to Wembley and he scored brace and was denied a hattrick as there was a disallowed goal that had crossed the line but no goal line technology back then. He was only nineteen but I doubt he ever played a batter ame.
Now THERE’S a youngster who was spotted, given the chance to play and ended up giving The Arsenal over £20,000,000 profit that built Hales End.
Let’s hope MA can unearth that kind of young player and do what AW did with Anelka.
What a shame his agent / brother influenced his decision to leave our club… something he has said he ALWAYS regretted.
Couldn’t agree more
He was badly advised
That line about leaving Adams and Bould on their backsides every two minutes made my day! Definitely a special player.
A tense and unsettled kid, in retrospect surely he must have regretted what could have been, his connection, his brother in particular is partly responsible for this lad not to have reached the same heights of Ronaldo.
But the legendary Henry may have benighted from his poor attitude and his subsequent sale, maybe a tale of two different players, with Anelka being one of the golden boys from France, winning the league with Arsenal to move to Real Madrid.
Surely in those days Anelka, had a much higher ceiling than Henry as demonstrated by his £22 mill price tag.
It was this move that funded a certain left winger from Juventus.
One had a miserable time at Real Madrid and didn’t find the potential expected of him, and the other flourished at Arsenal after a poor time at Juventus.
The grass is not always greener on the other side as another legendary Frenchman Emmanuel petit will tell you.
As will many other Arsenal players Gunsmoke :
I do think anelka had a higher ceiling than Henry just based on his footballing abilities, but Henry’s personality would always have given him the edge, imo. Henry was a winner and a leader who would drag teams with him when he had to – anelka didn’t have that in him, regardless of any good or bad career decisions.
Jon, this was an important part of our history, in as much as the incredible profit made, enabled us to build the state of the art Hales End facilities.
Perhaps some of our younger fans might not be aware of this and it’s nice to sometimes look back at successful outcomes that resulted from a negative situation.
👍ken, Anelka is a prime example of wasting your talent due to following bad advice. Although, Arsenal was well compensated financially, what a player Anelka could have been and brought success to the Club.
He was misled by his greedy brothers. It was the same everywhere he went – his brothers pulling the strings and causing trouble everywhere he went – even Gerard houllier banned them from Liverpool training ground. Wasted talent.
He was never on track to be as good as Ronaldo, but could have got fairly close. Ronaldo was always stronger and more technically gifted than anelka, more rounded – he set too high a bar. Had Ronaldo not had the injury problems he did, he’d almost certainly have been in the mix with pele, maradona, Messi etc. I don’t think anelka was ever on course to reach that level, but could have been one of the top few of his era imo.