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Pardew Explains To French TV How English Media Try To Trap Foreign Players

11 years ago
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The French media are getting almost unheard of access inside St.James’ Park and the training ground, this is a quality video from L’Equipe where they have interviewed Alan Pardew, our top French regulars….and regulars over the road in The Strawberry!

The L’Equipe title is – Newcastle So Frenchy! (watch video below)

(Voice over) Usually when the French players first arrive they are normally unseen, whereas in Newcastle all you see is them. The old ones have been joined by the new ones. After only a short time together they have already given a good return.

In the town the streets are empty and the pubs are full of fans (we see fans in the Strawberry, watching the Villa game). Four French players in the first eleven the Magpies win their sixth match of the season.

Cabaye “Before us Laurent Robert, David Ginola, Sibierski, Dumas, Oliver Bernard have left a very good picture, a French player is seen as respected and who is going to give everything for the club to get the best result.”

Pardew “We have a better understanding of the mentality of the French players due to our experience of working with Yohan Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa. The French are generally more skilful than our young English players, and the training and the coaches are of the first order. In my opinion they have more players at the level  that we need.”

Better prepared and less expensive hence they are popular, but nevertheless the Magpies will expect them to be performing immediately. The differences to Ligue 1 are numerous and the time for them to settle in will be very short.

SissokoThere is absolutely nothing similar to France. It’s a lot faster and it’s more physical multiply by 10! I was not surprised because I have watched the premier league on a regular basis. So I sort of knew what to expect and this is what I experienced when I arrived here. I was ready.”

DebuchyWe haven’t had time to settle in as we could have done if we had arrived in the summer. We had to go straight in, you had to perform straight away on the pitch. It’s gone sort of ok so far away at Villa.”

Home team dressing room, 10 French in this squad – you could feel like you were in League 1. Alan Pardew has demanded that they speak english to avoid cliques, and to help them integrate, and to also be aware of the ‘terrible’ english media.

PardewThe English media is very hard, first of all you have to understand what they say and the newspapers here are not interested about the tactics during the match but more about incidents like maybe a mistake, a tackle, or something else. You have to understand the questions they ask you so you don’t fall into the trap that they often set for foreign players.”

Marveaux “At first glance one, two players yes… but now they can see that we have a good mentality we are not here to make a French clique and not to speak English, far from it, it’s true to say that there is a really good healthy spirit at the club.”

Sissoko “Here they speak really fast and in the north of England they have a particular accent, it’s not easy to understand but I’m getting on with it.”

Debuchy in English – “I am very happy to play for Newcastle. C’est bon?” (That’s good?)

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