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Video Special – The French Connection

11 years ago
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The latest media interest featuring our new French contingent came from Canal+ which is France’s Equivalent of Sky.

This excellent feature has contributions from our French players as well as Alan Pardew, Newcastle journalists and fans, so even I could follow most of what was going on! Thanks to our translator Pierre though, we’ve given you a rundown of the French out-takes below.

The footage starts with Sissoko arriving at Newcastle Airport in the snow and continues inside St.James’ park and on the quayside for Moussa Sissoko’s photo shoot, where incidentally he looks one smart dude.

Cabaye: “It (putting Newcastle on the French map) is due to Ginola, he did some great things here and he left behind a great image”.

Journalist: “Hatem Ben Arfa is the one who restarted it all in terms of having French players at the club”.

Olivier Bernard: (Now living in the North East) “NUFC has a new system, buying young in order to resell at higher price;  in terms of quality/price the French are number one and they are attracted by the French development/training system. At the moment people see Cabaye as the benchmark of the French talent because he is so popular, loved by everyone and only bought for something between three to five million, today he is worth nearer fifteen!”

Yoan Gouffran: “There is no doubt that Newcastle can allow us to access higher levels, it remains for us to prove our worth on the pitch”.

Moussa Sissoko: “I wanted to play in the Premiership, today I have the opportunity to be here, it is up to me to grab this opportunity and to give everything every match”.

Mathieu Debuchy: “We are going to try so everything goes well, yes it is true there are lots of French so you automatically start speaking French amongst ourselves; so it can sometimes create some tension; it’s up to us to be intelligent about it and get our English up to scratch”.

Massadio Haidara: “We are in England, English is the language so it up to us to get on with it and speak it”.  (He is asked if he can speak English?) “Absolutely not!!!!”.

Journalist: “Remains to be seen how the Newcastle public reacts…”

Cabaye: we could have been Italians or Brazilians, as long as you respect their badge and their shirt and the fact that many go to away and home matches, they accept everything and they are happy that we play for their team.

Journalist: “The French contingent will very quickly have the opportunity to continue the great story between French players and Newcastle with Aston Villa and on Saturday face Chelsea”.

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