Nicolas Anelka joined Arsenal for just £500,000 and won the PFA Young Player of the Year in 1998/9. I believe the nickname Le Sulk came from the Sun, and it was a tragedy that it was taken up by some supporters (although I don’t recall hearing it too often at games). He played 72 times for Arsenal, plus 17 times as a sub, and scored 27 goals before going to Real Madrid for £22m in 1999 – an astonishing profit.
He won the Champions League with Real Mad in 2000, before going to PSG for £20m and then moved to Liverpool on loan and then to Man City where he scored 37 goals in 89 games.
In January 2005 he moved again this time for £7m to Fenerbahçe with whom he won the league in 2005. In 2006 he joined Bolton for £8m and was their top scorer with 11 goals. He signed a four year deal in 2007 but in January 2008 went to Chelsea for £15m. With Chelsea he played 125 times and scored 38 goals.
He later played for Shanghai Shenhua, Juventus, West Brom and Mumbai City (for whom he was player-manager).
After retiring as a player, Anelka joined the technical staff of Roda JC in February 2017. In November 2018, he joined Lille as a youth offensive coach.
22 February 1910: George Hunt born. He was one of the team that won the league in 1938 and also as the first ever player to move from Tottenham (then of the second division) to Arsenal (about to become champions).
22 February 1913: Gillespie Road named in the press for the first time as the site of the new Arsenal ground. There had been rumours for weeks that the site would be somewhere in Islington, but no one quite knew where.
22 February 1919: The English league debated the size of the league for the forthcoming season and recognising the sentiment of the day, voted for 22 clubs in each division with the recommendation that Chelsea FC should be elected into Division One despite their relegation in 1915, in recognition of the fact that they had suffered from the match fixing corruption of Liverpool and Man U.
22 February 1930: Not all Chapman purchases turned into masterstrokes, and Albert Humpish was one that failed. In all he played 3 league games, of which the second was Grimsby 1 Arsenal 1 on this day.
22 February 1933: Arsenal had the chance to wear their new strip, having just been granted permission so to do by the League, but chose to hold back for the next home game. This was a 2-2 away draw with Derby. Jack and Bastin scored
22 February 1936: Having signed as an amateur in April 1931 and as a professional on 9 May that year Sidney Cartright made his debut on this day against Portsmouth. Arsenal lost 2-3 to make it just two wins in seven.
22 February 1947: Stoke 3 Arsenal 1. Ronnie Rooke made it 11 goals in 8 games. This was part of a run of just one win in six.
22 February 1949: John Radford born (some sources say 1947). He went on to play 475 games for Arsenal and scored 149 goals. In 2016 John kindly wrote an article for Untold Arsenal
22 February 1964: Tottenham 3 Arsenal 1, start of seven game sequence without a win – a run that suggested that manager Billy Wright did not know how to rectify the situation. He did however last until the end of the following season. Laurie Brown, signed by Tottenham from Arsenal the day before, played for Tottenham.
22 February 1992: Tottenham 1 Arsenal 1, As a result Arsenal were 6th, 18 points off the top of the table although they climbed back to fourth and cut the difference to 10. Ian Wright got the goal.
22 February 1997: Nic Anelka arrived from PSG for approx £250,000. The story is that PSG did not want to sell him, but Arsenal arranged the signing on a technicality. He was later sold for 100 times the cost to Arsenal.
22 February 1998: The death of George Male. Arsenal was his only professional side and he played 285 games for the club.
22 February 2003: Manchester City 1 Arsenal 5. Arsenal went four up in 19 minutes in the 11th match of a 12 match unbeaten league run. It was Arsenal’s last game at Maine Road. Alex Ferguson ordered the radio broadcasting the match on the Man U bus to be switched off as they drove to their game (according to the Guardian).
22 February 2018: Arsenal lost to Swedish amateur team Ostersunds 1-2 at home, having beaten them away 3-0. It was the first of four consecutive defeats for Arsenal.
Anelka was very good for us. So fast – and with Bergkamp putting him through. Very sadly he was exploited by his financial adviser ie. controllers ie. self serving older bothers.