Former Chelsea star Nicolas Anelka takes over as manager of Shanghai Shenhua

04:41 04/12/2013
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  • He may have earned the monicker ‘Le Sulk’ during his colourful career, but Nicolas Anelka will now be known as ‘Le Coach’ after taking up a “player-coach” role with Shanghai Shenhua.

    The 33-year-old only joined the ambitious Chinese club in a shock move in January after being forced out of Chelsea by then boss Andre Villas-Boas.

    But having initially been brought in to increase the profile of the club and fire them to title glory with his goals, Anelka has now been entrusted with coaching duties alongside boss Jean Tigana, who contrary to reports, remains in charge.

    Tigana, the former Monaco and Fulham boss, was only appointed boss shortly after Anelka’s arrival and has reportedly been given a stay of execution, with Shanghai winning just two of their opening five games and finding themselves in 11th position.

    Respected French journalist Julien Laurens, who works for French daily Le Parisien, reported via his Twitter account that Anelka had already taken his first full training session.

    An official at the club confirmed Anelka’s appointment, that the club had axed three assistant coaches and that Tigana remained in his post. “We fired the assistant coaches. Tigana is still the coach of the team,” the official, who declined to be named. “Anelka is now on the coaching team.” 

    In a statement, Shenhua named Anelka as player-coach and said the shake-up of coaching staff followed a failure by the club to live up to expectations and problems with the quality of training. “Nicolas Anelka from this day will have the status of player-coach, participating in management of the team’s daily training,” said the statement on the club’s website.

    Anelka, who is also team captain, said the change in coaching staff marked a “new beginning” for the team. “Being a coach and being a player are different, but I will have a better connection with my teammates on the field,” Internet portal Sina quoted him as telling a news conference, which foreign media were not allowed to attend.

    The Oriental Sports Daily newspaper said the club had sacked the coaches brought on board by Tigana and hired four new ones as replacements, including former Tottenham keeper Ian Walker, who will work with the goalkeepers.

    Birmingham fitness coach Dan Harris will also join Anelka on the backroom staff, as will two Frenchmen, Alioune Kissima Toure and Jean-Florent Ikwange Ibenge, according to the newspaper.

    But it’s the appointment of Anelka as player-coach that will dominate all the headlines not least given his penchant during his playing career for spitting the dummy out when things have not gone his way.

    Anelka told Chinese journalists winning the league championship would be difficult though still possible, but he urged his teammates to focus on the next match. “We must from the next match… start winning games, slowly getting used to victory,” he said of the team who are languishing in the bottom half of the table.

     

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