Allardyce: His record speaks for itself

Bolton manager Sam Allardyce has backed new £8 million signing Nicolas Anelka to fire for his Wanderers.

Allardyce said: "Whatever suits the team as well as whatever suits Nicolas is key to the way forward now,"

"We'll play the same way as we've always played and obviously play through Nicolas now as much as we possibly can.

"The main aim for him is for us to produce as many chances, as many opportunities for him to show his talents, to show his goal-scoring prowess.

"His record speaks for itself and we know we create a lot of opportunities in The Premiership, we did that last week and I'm convinced if he'd been playing in that game we'd have won the game comfortably.

"From our point of view if we continue to create chances like we have done in the first three games this season, we would have produced a lot more goals, or particularly Nicolas would have.

"That would help us to achieve the goal we've set and our goal has been raised to the level of trying to get into Europe and we must always continue to try and go beyond the Uefa Cup and farther.

"Whether that's a domestic cup to try to win or still the opportunity to challenge for the Champions League, that's something I'm ambitious for and more importantly Nicolas is as well."

"I don't feel any pressure when I sign a quality player, it's a nice feeling and I think the patience we've shown and the time we've spent talking to Fenerbahce and to Nicolas to get this deal shows the commitment,"

"It started way back in May and everyone has worked extremely hard, including Nicolas himself to produce this deal we've done.

"I think it's the smallest gamble we've ever taken as far as I'm concerned because Nic's record speaks for itself.

"I think that if we can have a relationship and I can help him produce his best for Bolton Wanderers then he can produce the goals we're looking for.

"The object for me is to help him along the way and produce the sort of performances he's produced in The Premiership with Manchester City and Arsenal in the past.

"I'm looking forward to the opportunity to work with him and just as importantly the rest of the squad is as well."

"It's the biggest transfer I've done, the biggest transfer this club has ever done and that does put a little bit of pressure on Nic,"

"But he's used to that, he's played on bigger stages than this but he wants to play in The Premiership again and hopefully he can produce his best for us and be successful."