When I continue to see the name of Nicolas Anelka being thrown about the gossip columns, being linked with a move to us, it turns my stomach. Looking at the fact that Shola Ameobi, loved and loathed by the Geordie public, actually has a marginally better career goals-to-starts ratio - you can see what I am getting at.

It was a certain Mr Graeme Souness that brought the incompetence and spindly-ness of Anelka to the fans’ attention, although he and many of those supporters didn’t see him in that light. I did. I saw him as a gangly forward, just like Ameobi. And just as incapable to score goals as Wor Shola. It infuriates me to see us still being linked with him - 12 months on. Hopefully now that Roeder is in charge, things will have changed in terms of our interest in Nicolas Anelka.

I’m going to look at the facts - because that is simply all you need to see when it comes to this man. This is the proof of how the many fans wanting to see him in a black and white shirt, are deluded.

We may aswell begin at the beginning. At Arsenal - in the years of 1997 and 1998 when in his late teens and early twenties, Anelka was a top class striker; there’s no doubt about that. Even so, he was hardly a goal machine then - and never really was later in his career. His time at Arsenal commanded a £22.5m transfer fee from Spanish giants Real Madrid after he fell out with Arsenal. There, he scored a measly 8 goals in 39 appearances. So effectively, Madrid paid £2.8m per goal in his time there, plus whatever his enormous wages would have been back then.

Later in his career - he forced more excruciatingly high transfer fees for a player of his small quality. £9m paid by Paris St Germaine, £12.5m paid by Manchester City, £7m paid by Fenerbahce of Turkey.

Here are some very interesting, and very poor statistics, which simply make the mind boggle when you consider the wage packets he’s collected, and the transfer fees his clubs have demanded:

Anelka’s Overall Goalscoring Record:

311 Appearances
99 Goals
32% strike rate
1 goal in every 3.5 games or so

Sorry, but that’s pitiful - and it just makes you wonder why we are after him, even now. Newcastle United is in dire need of an attacker, yes, but we crave a goalscorer. We haven’t had a prolific goalscorer since the season of 2003/04, when Shearer grabbed a mighty 28 goals. Since then, we haven’t really had anyone prolific, particularly not in the league. We need someone to rely on. Anelka’s not that someone.
Anelka’s English Premier League form doesn’t back him up much, either. In his last season in the Premiership, he forced 7 goals from 19 appearances.

People clutch at straws when it comes to Anelka, I think. Our supporters have been claiming that he was brilliant with Owen, and that would be an excellent reason to sign the Frenchman.

Erm… no. Not really. Not at all, infact. Anelka accumulated 5 goals when playing alongside Owen, from a total of 22 appearances in the league.

Plus, although he is still in his twenties - he may aswell be in his thirties, and the goals are drying up more and more - and the pace is deteriorating. Last season, he scored 12 goals from 36 appearances for Fenerbahce. And I hardly think that the Turkish defences are the strongest in the world. That’s poor - when you consider how productive and creative the Fenerbahce side are, with the likes of Stephen Appiah and Sanli Tuncay in the side. So much that they finished 2nd last season.

What’s more - Anelka carries heavy baggage wherever he goes. It’s a known fact - he is one of the sulkiest, laziest, moan-iest players in top flight football, and he would disrupt the evident harmony we have in our dressing room.

“I’m bored with football in Turkey…” January 2005

“If, from the start, I had been playing well, it would have been too simple…” May 1999, having moved to Real Madrid

He would not score goals for our first team - he would be dropped - and he would sulk - and we would have a row - and other players would feel uncomfortable - and the manager would be put under enormous pressure - and he would be sold - or the manager could be sacked. Roeder’s a disciplinarian, and he wouldn’t stand for it. Anelka has very much the wrong sort of personality for our club at the moment.

Plus, we’d have to pay a hugely over-priced sum of money for him. Fenerbahce wanted more than what they paid for him in the first place, and apparantely the fans love him over there. He would not go cheap.

He would be a very expensive mistake, and it would be so typical of our club to pull a stunt like this again, like we have done with the likes of Boumsong, Marcelino, Viana, Cort, Ferguson. All expensive mistakes.

Howay Pompey. Do us a favour and sign the bugger.