Anelka: I refused to take one of the first five penalties
Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka has admitted he refused to take one of the first five penalty kicks in the Champion s League Final shoot-out and has slammed Avram Grant's decision to use him primarily as a winger since his January move from Bolton. The Frenchman missed the seventh spot kick to hand Manchester United their third European Cup.
But it is Anelka's refusal to take one of the first five penalties that will raise eyebrows, with centre-back and captain John Terry missing the decisive fifth penalty that would have secured Chelsea's first European Cup.
"I was asked to take one of the first five kicks," Anelka, 29, told L'Equipe.
"But I said: 'That is out of the question, I have come on basically as a right-back and you want me to take a penalty.'
"So I had to go in seventh but (Edwin) Van der Sar pushed away my shot. All the better for him, that is the game."
And Anelka has put his position at the club even further in doubt with an attack on Grant and his tactics, as well as the Israeli's decision to send him on as a substitute without allowing him to warm up properly.
"I didn't come here to play on the left or right," he said. "When I came here, people told me I would play in a 4-4-2.
"In England, I no longer need to prove that I am better through the middle. Since I arrived, I haven't played in my position. Never as a number nine, always on the left or the right.
"Until now, I haven't said anything. I was a newcomer, I haven't wanted to make a story out of it because I still didn't know the club.
"But from next season, I insist I will no longer be the little newcomer."
He continued: "At no point did I think I was going to come on.
"I was on the bench for 110 minutes and suddenly I am asked to play, not even a minute after I was sent out to warm up.
"I don't know if that has ever happened in a Champions League final, in a match of that intensity, that a player has gone on to the pitch without having warmed up. When you go on, you have to be ready to run!"
Comments
Add a comment
Be the first to comment on this
If you are a Gambling.com member, please login at the top left of this page.
If you are not a Gambling.com member, please complete our sign up form—membership is free and it takes just a minute or two to sign up.