NICOLAS ANELKA'S SMILES BETTER

NOT so long ago, Nicolas Anelka might have answered the question with a contemptuous Gallic shrug or offered a hollow stare.

Now, when asked what he makes of all those 'Le Sulk' and 'Nasty Nic' headlines that have haunted him down the years, a broad grin breaks across his face.

He then laughs. Yes, Nicolas Anelka is laughing out loud.

"I see it all as funny in a way because when people speak about me like that I realise they don't really know me at all," Anelka points out philosophically, without a trace of bitterness.

Certainly since joining Chelsea almost two years ago from Bolton, the Frenchman has not only started to play with a smile on his face, he's even got people smiling with him.

It was an easy mistake to make back then, given the evidence that mounted against him at Arsenal and beyond.

Even he is forced to concede the image of him as sullen and selfish adversely affected his career following a string of transfers that made him Le Nomad.

After that 'dream move' from Arsenal to Real Madrid in the summer of 1999 turned out to be a one season nightmare despite a Champions League winners medal at the end of it, Anelka found himself shunned by the big clubs.

From Madrid he moved back to his native city and Paris St Germain. A loan at Liverpool promised much until Gerard Houllier blocked the permanent move Anelka wanted.

He had a decent spell at Manchester City but his career seemed to be on the wane when he grabbed the opportunity of Champions League football with Fenerbahce, only to discover Europe's elite had turned their back on him when he began to tire of Turkey.

He yearned for another chance with a major club to match his undoubted ability. He ended up at Bolton. Instead of a backwater, however, industrial Lancashire proved to be a turning point.

At Bolton, Anelka provided compelling evidence he is a team player, even adapting his game to suit Big Sam Allardyce's tactics. Finally the Premier League's Big Four could ignore him no longer.

"I have no doubt the reputation I had and the perception in some of the press counted against me for a while," he concedes. "I am sure it put clubs off.

"I moved around a lot after Real Madrid because I wanted to sign for a big club. Maybe it is now because I am more mature, no longer the young guy but a senior player, if you like, that I understand things a bit more.

"But the truth is people can get the wrong impression. I am not one to talk a lot, certainly not in the dressing room, but that is not being rude, it's because I am basically shy.

"Other players will tell you I don't speak too much. But they respect who I am and how I am.

"I converted to Islam when I was 16 because most of the kids in the Paris suburb where I grew up were Muslim. I don't pray in the dressing room or anything like that.

"It's a private thing that I take home with me but I like to live a good life.

"So who is the real Nicolas Anelka? I am just a simple person. I want to enjoy my football. I don't do much outside. I just go home and watch TV and sit with my friends.

"The image of me as some sort of trouble-maker is wrong. I don't go out much and you will never see me drunk.

"And on the pitch I have just one red card, when I was at City - against Arsenal!

"For me, a good night out is at a restaurant with family and friends. That's it."

As he talks, Anelka comes across more dignified than distant. It has certainly taken a long time for him to be truly accepted in the English game. It's something that obviously still rankles.

"I thought I had got back to a big club when I moved to Liverpool. I wanted to stay but Houllier decided to let me go.

"I then went to Turkey and played for Fenerbahce to play Champions League but always on mind was wanting to play for a big club again.

"I was still doing my job on the pitch even when I was at Manchester City, Fenerbahce or Bolton and still scoring goals but I started to realise that the most important thing in this game is not always what you do on the pitch but the image you have off it.

"That was my conclusion because I was doing really well on the pitch but none of the big clubs came in for me."

It is a rare admission for a footballer to make - that perception can count for more than performance.

Not that Anelka is courting publicity or trying to develop a commercial career. He now simply understands that just making a bit of an effort to come across nice, rather than nasty, helps.

At 30, l'enfant terrible has most definitely grown up and he acknowledges the influence of Sam Allardyce at Bolton.

Allardyce and Anelka ought to have been an accident waiting to happen but the France striker agreed his time at the club helped prove the image which had grown around him was unfair.

"I think I showed who I really was at Bolton," he insists. "I tried my best, like I always do on the pitch, but I learned it was a good idea to have a good relationship with everybody.

"I have a lot to be grateful to Sam Allardyce. I had a good relationship with him. It was a bit strange for me because of their style of play.

"There was a lot of ball in the air so it was hard for me at first but I managed to enjoy it and perform.

"Bolton helped improve my all-round game.

"It taught me to be stronger in my head and adapt. I learned how to play the Bolton way and I think it showed to people I could be flexible.

"I did enough and after all those years after Madrid, striving to find a big club, the opportunity came to join Chelsea and, yes, now I feel I have found a home.

"I want spend the rest of the best days of my career here. Yes I hope there will be a new contract. When? Soon, soon."

Such an aura of contentment was anything but the case after the acrimonious move from Arsenal when a 19-year-old Anelka found himself shunned by the grandee galacticos in the Madrid dressing room.

When he arrived there was no locker allotted for him in and a group of senior players went to see the president asking why the club had signed him in the first place. Despite goals in both legs of the semi-final on way to Champions League success over Valencia, Anelka left the club. The sharp learning curve has made him vow never to return to play in Spain.

"I have no regrets about leaving Arsenal. Some of the stories that followed my departure were, how shall I say, a shame," Anelka reflects.

"Some of the stick was really unfair. The club bought me for £500,000 as a 17-year-old and two years later sold me for £23million.

"They did very well and while Arsenal is a great club, Real Madrid is a great club and if they knock on the door most people will say yes.

"When I left I never said anything bad about the Arsenal fans or the club. I still say I had a happy time at Arsenal and still love the club."

Anelka can't say the same for Madrid and Spain, however. And when some English players moan about what they perceive as pressure and intrusion in this country, they ought to listen to Anelka.

"In your life sometimes you need to know what is good for you and you can only find out by doing it.

Not long after I signed for Madrid I realised it wasn't the club or the country for me," he explains.

"I didn't like Spain because of the mentality. You can't live like you can in England. Here, after you finish your football, you can go out and you are like everybody else.

"In Spain, no. You can't go out you can't do anything because everyone is on top of you.

"It was hard for me. Maybe it was because I had been used to living in London and doing things like normal people.

"In Spain, especially because I was a big signing, I just could not go out.

DOUBLE TROUBLE - Nicolas Anelka and strike partner Didier Drogba

"In a way it was good experience because I know now it is not the country for me.

"So even though I did not enjoy my football there I have the experience of Spain and I know I wouldn't do it again.

"English life is better for me. It suits me very well."

Especially in London with Chelsea.

At first Anelka was in and out, seemingly an understudy to Didier or even a replacement had the Ivorian striker left after Champions League final defeat to Manchester United in Moscow.

Then, at the start of last season under Phil Scolari, Anelka was first pick even when Drogba returned from injury. Bizarrely, Scolari failed to harness the two strikers as a pair.

Guus Hiddink did when he took over, Chelsea revived and Anelka ended the season as Premier league golden boot winner with 19 goals and FA Cup success.

Now under Carlo Ancelotti, the two are the league's most feared strike duo and with further evidence of his selflessness, Anelka is happy to play second fiddle.

"For years people have seen me just as an out and out striker but I wanted to play in a pair," he says.

"I did it for that brief time at Liverpool with either Michael Owen or Emile Heskey and really liked it.

"Despite what people think I am just as happy to make goals than score them. At the moment this is what I try and do for Didier. I have changed my position.

"When we are together I operate as the second striker, almost a midfielder, and it works.

"But he tries to do the same for me when he can. People were wrong in the first half of last season when they thought there was friction between us.

"There wasn't. We just wanted to play as two strikers together like we are now.

"I won the Golden Boot last year but maybe Didier will this season. It's a partnership. When I first arrived we spoke about it but it took nearly a year for it to happen."

As it stands this term, Drogba has nine Premier League goals to Anelka's three but in Europe it is the France striker who is making the difference with three goals to ensure Chelsea's qualification for the Champions League knockout stage.

And Anelka, who won the domestic Double with today's opponents Arsenal in 1998, believes the new dream double of Premier and Champions League success is within Chelsea's grasp.

"I think we can win both," Anelka insists.

"I feel we have the squad to do it. Whatever the outcome on Sunday, I do still think Arsenal along with Manchester United will be tough rivals in League.

"It is always difficult in Europe but after the last couple of years of disappointment there is a strong feeling within the club to make this our year in the Champions League.

"Yes we will have some big players missing at the start of the year because of the African Nations Cup but if you ask me can I fill the gap I say of course - I did it last year."

A grin comes across Anelka's face again. His assertion that he would take on the mantle of prime scorer was said with a sense of confidence and belief rather than arrogance.

Although fired with ambition to start adding medals that have eluded him since those fraught early days of his career, Anelka is at ease with life.

And he can't deny it helps being liked rather than loathed. But the whatever the perception he still sees that producing the goods is the most important currency rather than talking a good game.

Anelka reflects: "It's good to see people enjoy my football.

"To see me as a normal person who does smile.

"But even when they didn't, I think many people still respected me for my football. I think that is the most important thing. Respect."

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