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Debuchy – ‘I Fought For Weeks To Join Newcastle’

11 years ago
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Mathieu Debuchy has been interviewed by French football legend, Bixente Lizarazu, and some very interesting reflections on what happened in the Summer with regard to his much rumoured possible move to Tyneside.

Plus of course whether a move is still in the offing…

Many thanks as always to our expert translator, Pierre, who has made visible to us what Debuchy said in this interview from RTL.

BL  “Your chairman refused your departure this summer do you have any regrets?”

MD  “No, no regrets , LOSC is a big club and my home…I had made a choice to leave and join Newcastle, I fought for several weeks to join them but the chairman declined. For many long weeks I tried to convince the Chairman and coach. I tried to manage the situation as I did not want to argue and clash, as I have always felt good at Lille. I have been here for many years, I arrived at Lille in 1993. I don’t want to leave, if one day I leave, on bad terms”.

BL “Michel Seydoux (Chairman) did not consider the offer to be high enough? When did you get the first contact? Was it directly from the manager or owner of Newcastle?”

MD “It was my agent who managed that, as it happened during the Euros. When the Euros was over I was in contact with Newcastle regularly. There have been several offers, it was more than 6MEuros but it did not happen; I don’t really want to go back to this. It is an episode in the past and now I am 200% for LOSC”.

BL “In your head are you planning to leave next season?”

MD “I don’t want to leave for the sake of leaving, I felt I only wanted to join Newcastle at the time. I spoke with Yohan Cabaye during the Euro. I wanted to discover England and the Premiership. I even watched Liverpool v Newcastle this weekend…it is attracting, it gives you a taste for it but I repeat, not leaving for leaving sake”.

BL “Have you got a gentleman’s agreement for the end of the season? I imagine you are not leaving in January?”

MD “No no, we have not spoken about it, there is lot of things happening with the start of the season and I am concentrating on LOSC. Spain, Germany, England are 3 big championships”.

BL “Do you regularly  ask yourself that what happened to you this summer could be an opportunity missed that you may never see again?”

MD “Yes they are difficult times to digest. I honestly found it very hard during the first few weeks. I have faith in myself and believe there will be other opportunities coming my way. You never know in football, it can happen so quickly. Yes…not to go to Newcastle, I was disappointed”.

BL “To conclude on this section, I want to share with you the comments made about you by one of your colleagues…’He (Mathieu Debuchy) is a great professional, in similar situation players would have clashed with the management but he thinks team before anything, he did not just think about himself, he has not forced the issue, he has accepted the decision and it is very good for the group’. The president and Rudi Garcia are both very intelligent people who have a great relationship with Mathieu and he did it with respect. They will remember that and when he has another opportunity I am sure that they will not veto his departure and it will be done positively”.

Interesting timing of the interview as Lille play away at Bayern Munich in the Champions League tomorrow (Wednesday) night. Currently the French club have zero points from three matches and only a very unlikely win in Germany would give them even a remote chance of still qualifying.

Domestically, Debuchy’s club aren’t pulling up any trees in Ligue 1, so if as expected Lille exit the Champions League, does that leave the way open for a January move to Newcastle.

When answering Lizarazu’s questions regarding a possible move in January etc, the player is hardly going to say that it’s a possibility even if is.

With Alan Pardew preferring Anita to Simpson at Anfield I think there could be a real prospect of movement in that position in January.

In an ideal world I’d like to see Newcastle also retain Simpson but seeing Enrique on Sunday reminded me how exciting it would be to pair Santon up with an equally exciting full-back on the other side, giving Newcastle a whole extra dimension to their attacking play.

Here’s hoping.

 

 

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