Nomad may have found final resting spot

Nicolas Anelka heads for the Bridge and joins his eighth club in 11 seasons, writes David Hytner

Avram Grant is fond of propagating his "different way". He was at it again yesterday, detailing his training regime, his way of playing football and his alternative method of communicating messages. Yet it was when he applied the maxim to Nicolas Anelka, the club's €19.8 million signing from Bolton Wanderers, that his audience grew intrigued.

Anelka is the striker with the Midas touch and a bank balance to match. A succession of managers have gone on bended knee to their chairmen to plead for his services, and eye-watering sums have been paid for him. Anelka has acquired the reputation of a nomad, and not without good reason. His transfer to Chelsea is his eighth in 11 years. Yet Grant believes the Frenchman will now settle. Finally, the 28-year-old is ready to put down some roots.

"He's almost 29, a good age for a football player and even he says that he wants to finish his career at the one club," said Grant. "He is a player that I expect is ready to finish his career in a good club and to bring some titles to himself. I think he learns from his mistakes in the past."

Grant detects a more mature character, one more comfortable in his own skin and with his talents. Perhaps success came to him too early at Arsenal, when he helped Arsene Wenger to his first Double, scoring at Wembley in the 1998 FA Cup final victory over Newcastle United.

The boy in a reckless hurry to conquer European football has calmed to recognise a broader picture and the time he has spent away from the game's biggest clubs, where his abilities surely belong, has fuelled his desire. Save for a six month-loan spell at Liverpool in 2001-'02, he has been on the outside looking in since his departure from Real Madrid in the summer of 2000, where he helped them win a European Cup.

Those closest to him have spoken in recent months of his yearning to return to a Champions League club. He was disappointed in the summer when he believed he was set to leave Bolton for an astonishing return to Arsenal, only for Wenger not to call. The acrimony of Anelka's departure from the club in 1999, amid "Incredible Sulk" headlines and when Real paid €30.4 million for him, still bothered some in the boardroom.

Yet Anelka has his move now, to London's blue corner, and he is determined to make up for lost time. The prospect of him teaming up with Didier Drogba is mouthwatering.

That will have to wait, though, as Drogba, the Premier League's top scorer last season, is at the African Cup of Nations with the Ivory Coast.

Drogba is not known in England for his strike partnerships; he has more frequently resembled a one-man wrecking crew and Anelka, too, is proficient at leading the line on his own. But Grant is confident that when they are paired, they will prosper. For him, good players make systems and not the other way around.

"There are two ways, putting the players into the system or putting the system into the players," he said. "The first way is not so modern. You see many teams playing different tactics and it depends on which players are in shape.We like the 4-3-3, and we like to play 4-4-2 and 4-4-1-1 but we can also change. The way the team plays, the way it moves the ball and passes, the way it sends players to attack is more important and you can do that in any system."

Drogba has said he wants to leave Chelsea in the summer for a fresh challenge, which may yet see Anelka assume the mantle of the club's lead striker. If he stays, though, someone will suffer. Grant also has Andriy Shevchenko, Salomon Kalou and Claudio Pizarro.

Anelka's transfer stirred uncomfortable memories for one of his former mentors yesterday, with Wenger having said that it was his "biggest regret" when the player left Arsenal. "The signing could be decisive for Chelsea because they will not feel Drogba's absence as much," he added.