First, many papers have been reporting the sad story of little Anelka Allen, a two year old girl from Cambridgeshire(?). The poor lass's Arsenal supporting mother says that there's no way the name's going to be changed, and adds "She's one in a million, a real handful and she certainly knows her own mind. She's also got a temper on her but she probably gets that from me. I wouldn't say that she sulks and she's not old enough to start demanding extra pocket money yet" (no chance of the name affecting affecting anyone's attitude to her, then). Despite the similarities to which her mother draws attention, we reckon that young Anelka is already considerably more mature than her French namesake.

Secondly, this Yahoo page reports that Anelka (the footballer, not the toddler) has finally scored for his new club Real Madrid. But only in a computer simulation.

Despite the obvious contrast between the stuttering start to Anelka's Real career and those of Suker at Arsenal and Hasslebaink at Atletico, Real boss John Toshack still reckons that Anelka will prove a great long-term signing. See this Sporting Life article focussing on the forthcoming Madrid derby. Toshack compares Hasslebaink vs Anelka to Frazier vs Clay. We can only assume he means Joe Frazier vs a lump of clay.

At Wembley on Wednesday the announcer tried to whip up extra interest in Lee Dixon's testimonial by suggesting that Anelka will be there. We do hope so, but find it hard to believe that Nic won't find a way of skulking out of it. Maybe a note from his Mummy...