He said some spiteful things just before he left us for Fenerbahce in January 2005 and shortly after too.
It was also obvious throughout his City career that he didn't really want to be there. He believed he deserved to be at one of the European heavyweights and I think he regretted joining us. I also reckon being at City prevented him getting a recall to the French national team, even though he clearly deserved it, and that hurt.
However, for the most part, he did a good job for us. He didn't want to be there and wasn't very passionate about pulling on the sky blue but he made sure he did the business and gave us some payback for the club-record £13m that Kevin Keegan had splashed out on him.
Also, he's known as a bad-boy with a big ego, but until just before his departure, he pretty much kept his gob shut throughout and got on with it.
Anelka scored on a regular basis and finished with a pretty good record (42 goals in 98 games), and although we only sold him for around £7m, I think we got value for money.
At times he was our only threat so even if we were playing poorly, our opponents still had to wary because he could score goals out of nothing.
It was great to see a player of that calibre play for us, it was a shame many of his team-mates weren't up to his standard.
It reminded me a lot of Georgi Kinkladze's time at the club, but what Kinkladze had that Anelka didn't was true affection for the club. Kinky stayed with us for 3 yrs, which proved detrimental to his own career, and it was all because he genuinely loved the club.
Therefore Gio is regarded as one of our all-time greats whereas Anelka isn't. Paul Dickov has nowhere near Anelka's talent yet he ranks not far behind Gio because of his passion for City (oh, and that goal at Wembley, of course!!) If Anelka's passion was half as much as his talent then I'm sure he would have been rated as a City legend.
I'm not suggesting he is one, but I would like to think he did enough to earn a decent reception on his first visit to the club since leaving for Turkey. I hope you all agree.
It was also obvious throughout his City career that he didn't really want to be there. He believed he deserved to be at one of the European heavyweights and I think he regretted joining us. I also reckon being at City prevented him getting a recall to the French national team, even though he clearly deserved it, and that hurt.
However, for the most part, he did a good job for us. He didn't want to be there and wasn't very passionate about pulling on the sky blue but he made sure he did the business and gave us some payback for the club-record £13m that Kevin Keegan had splashed out on him.
Also, he's known as a bad-boy with a big ego, but until just before his departure, he pretty much kept his gob shut throughout and got on with it.
Anelka scored on a regular basis and finished with a pretty good record (42 goals in 98 games), and although we only sold him for around £7m, I think we got value for money.
At times he was our only threat so even if we were playing poorly, our opponents still had to wary because he could score goals out of nothing.
It was great to see a player of that calibre play for us, it was a shame many of his team-mates weren't up to his standard.
It reminded me a lot of Georgi Kinkladze's time at the club, but what Kinkladze had that Anelka didn't was true affection for the club. Kinky stayed with us for 3 yrs, which proved detrimental to his own career, and it was all because he genuinely loved the club.
Therefore Gio is regarded as one of our all-time greats whereas Anelka isn't. Paul Dickov has nowhere near Anelka's talent yet he ranks not far behind Gio because of his passion for City (oh, and that goal at Wembley, of course!!) If Anelka's passion was half as much as his talent then I'm sure he would have been rated as a City legend.
I'm not suggesting he is one, but I would like to think he did enough to earn a decent reception on his first visit to the club since leaving for Turkey. I hope you all agree.