‘People don’t know this…’ – Every word Nicolas Anelka said about West Brom in Netflix doc
Former West Brom striker Nicolas Anelka has hit out at Steve Clarke for the way he was managed during his controversial spell at The Hawthorns in 2013/14.
Anelka played just 12 times and scored just twice before he was sacked by the Baggies in March 2014 for gross misconduct.
The Frenchman, who left a trail of destruction throughout his journeyman career, was sacked after doing quenelle salute, which was described as anti-Semitic.
However, Anelka has since claimed that the salute, which he performed after scoring against West Ham not long after Clarke was sacked, was aimed at the Scotsman.
“I was back with a coach I knew, Steve Clarke. He was cool when I was with him at Chelsea, so I thought: ‘Why not?’,” said Anelka in the new Netflix documentary, Anelka: Misunderstood.
“The first game arrived. We were eagerly awaited. It was a home game. It was 0-0 and after 70 minutes, Steve Clarke took me out.
“I was kind of the star of the team. I scored all the goals in pre-season. Taking me out like that was a way of showing the public that it was 0-0 because the striker hadn’t done anything.
“It shows a lack of respect and a lack of trust. When you’re 34 and the coach does this to you in the very first game, I just stopped talking to him. I thought: ‘If you’re going to play that game, no problem.’
“He didn’t use me. What happened is what always happens. You play the wise guy but sometimes you get burned. Five games, five defeats. Ciao.
“I was back in the team and my first game after Clarke left, I scored. So, I did that celebration.
“People don’t know this because I never wanted to talk about Steve Clarke, but when I did the quenelle, it was for him. You didn’t use me when you were here. As soon as you left, look: I played and scored. Take that. Shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.”
No one really knew what Anelka’s celebration was all about until the French media picked up on it and alarm bells started to ring in the Black Country and across English football.
“I lived in Birmingham. I didn’t have French TV. I had the internet but I didn’t really notice – I wasn’t aware of what was going on,” Anelka continued.
“When I was accused of making an anti-Semitic gesture, I denied it because it wasn’t the case. For me, it was anything but. So, I was surprised but it’s good to call people out. Ok, so be it. Prove it to me.”
Eventually, the FA banned Anelka for five matches and hit him with an £80,000 fine.
He played his final game for West Brom on January 29 in a 4-3 defeat at Aston Villa.
“We had two days of hearings. The verdict: I am not anti-Semitic but the gesture is. And I was punished with a five-game ban and a fine. We all know why – because there had to be sanctions. But the reality is that I wasn’t guilty,” Anelka added.
“Not a single prior incident with Jewish people. Why would I think about Jewish people after a goal? Why?
“They said it themselves. So, if I am not anti-Semitic, that’s it, case closed.”
For those who know about Anelka’s career or who have watched the documentary on Netflix, it is clear that the former striker is someone who feels as though the world revolves around him.
He had controversies at Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Liverpool, West Brom and, most famously, the France national team at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Anelka felt as though he was too big for West Brom – he never seemed to want to be at The Hawthorns in the first place.
If you’re a professional footballer and you cannot handle being substituted off late on when the score is 0-0 then you are anything but professional.
Anelka’s stunk up The Hawthorns for his entire spell at the club.
He had one good performance in a West Brom shirt and he tainted that with an anti-Semitic celebration.
The only thing Clarke did wrong with Anelka was to sign him in the very first place.
In other West Brom news, Albion are set to bid £7.2million for this international attacker.
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