Raheem Sterling’s move to Chelsea will make him the seventh Premier League player to represent (at least) three of the Big Six. So let’s have a look at the previous six, and see where they’ve managed to remain fondly remembered, if at all. Inevitably, some interesting characters on this list…
Nicolas Anelka
Arsenal 1997-99
Liverpool 2001-02
Manchester City 2002-05
Chelsea 2008-12
Still the only player to tick off four of the Big Six – although Sterling still has time – and a fittingly polarising and divisive figure to hold that particular accolade. His best season in England remains the 1998/99 campaign at Arsenal in which the teenage sensation proved just what a bargain the £500,000 Arsene Wenger had paid PSG for the 17-year-old two years earlier had been. But the manner of his departure to Real Madrid – a move the man himself has since admitted he regrets – still splits Arsenal fans to this day. He might not have made it on to this list, but you do wonder whether Anelka’s career would have looked different (and frankly better) had he stayed with Wenger and Arsenal for longer.
A short loan at Liverpool in 2002 wasn’t a total flop, although Liverpool did decide to sign El-Hadji Diouf rather than Anelka on a permanent deal that summer. Anelka instead signed for a pre-megabucks Manchester City for what now seems an impossibly quaint club-record fee of £13m. He was good for a City team that was nothing like the one we know now, one that had to survive on moments of joy amidst the despair and envious glances down the road. Anelka provided several of these, including a goal in the last ever Manchester derby at Maine Road and a last-minute winner at Anfield. Also scored in Jose Mourinho’s first defeat as Chelsea manager.
His best statistical season was his first at Chelsea in 2008/09 with 19 goals, but his most significant moment in a Chelsea shirt had already happened: the other, less-remembered missed penalty in the shoot-out against United in the 2008 Champions League final. Did a muted celebration against Arsenal because he “still loved” them, offering final conclusive proof of the mistake he made in 1999.
Still loved by: It’s complicated, but on balance it probably is City fans who still remember a simpler if less successful time for the club.
William Gallas
Chelsea 2001-06
Arsenal 2006-10
Tottenham 2010-13
A brilliant defender but also…a bit of a character, let’s say. Superb alongside John Terry for Chelsea under…
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