Another french?

[Craiglistee]

Is is just me or are we moving from a English player based team to a Francophone team much like our "freres" down the road in the Emirates?

Our backline is almost all French speaking now, especially with Gallas coming in. And imagine King and Gallas beside each other, its like the first time a Spurs and Arsenal captain plays in the same team I bet. Aside from that crap who used to be our Captain. But he never played with Tony Adams did he? I do not remember anything about that piece of work.

Anyways now we seem to be strongly linked to Sessagon who isn't strictly french but pretty much so with the language and like BAE, played in Ligue 1 for most of his career.

Now not that I have a real big issue here, but shouldn't we aim higher at a player who might change our team much like how Modric has changed ours? I am talking about someone who bombed in the World Cup (mainly because no one liked him and refused to pass to him) so his value isn't inflated much, probably went down. But someone who is also on the move to the french club Lyon. Yes, Monsieu Yoann Gourcuff. I think Wenger would have a stroke if we landed his number one target. People compare Gourcuff to Zizou but I don't find them alike at all. If anything, Gourcuff is more Paul Scholes than Zizou.

Can you imagine a Modric, Huddlestone and Gourcuff midfield in the middle, where they take turns dropping deep and bursting forward? Plus our player of last season and probably this season Gareth Bale plus Lennon of old (seems to be getting back to his best) on the wings. It'd be a wet dream for any manager.

If Gourcuff moves to Lyon for around 20million, you'd hear a collective groan from the Arsene Wenger team.

[edmonds44]

god knows where you get the french back line from... if you look at the latest back line we have played recently

vs Man City

Corluka - King - Dawson - BAE = one french speaking

vs Young boys away

Corluka - Dawson - Bassong - BAE = two french speaking

vs Stoke

Corluka - Dawson - Kaboul - Bae = two french speaking

not exactly millions of french players... gallas is now actually a british citizen because he has worked in this country for over 5 years... and does speak english... we are a club that still has a lot of british players but spice it up a bit with a few Croat's and French/Camaroon etc players...

[Iconic Drei]

I don't agree with the french language/player thing. However, I think that Gourcuff is an amazing talent and is the type of player we should aim to buy, but i'm not sure how realistic he is in terms of transfer, wages etc.

[Mike The Yid]

Is is just me or are we moving from a English player based team to a Francophone team much like our "freres" down the road in the Emirates?

Our backline is almost all French speaking now, especially with Gallas coming in. And imagine King and Gallas beside each other, its like the first time a Spurs and Arsenal captain plays in the same team I bet. Aside from that crap who used to be our Captain. But he never played with Tony Adams did he? I do not remember anything about that piece of work.

Anyways now we seem to be strongly linked to Sessagon who isn't strictly french but pretty much so with the language and like BAE, played in Ligue 1 for most of his career.

Now not that I have a real big issue here, but shouldn't we aim higher at a player who might change our team much like how Modric has changed ours? I am talking about someone who bombed in the World Cup (mainly because no one liked him and refused to pass to him) so his value isn't inflated much, probably went down. But someone who is also on the move to the french club Lyon. Yes, Monsieu Yoann Gourcuff. I think Wenger would have a stroke if we landed his number one target. People compare Gourcuff to Zizou but I don't find them alike at all. If anything, Gourcuff is more Paul Scholes than Zizou.

Can you imagine a Modric, Huddlestone and Gourcuff midfield in the middle, where they take turns dropping deep and bursting forward? Plus our player of last season and probably this season Gareth Bale plus Lennon of old (seems to be getting back to his best) on the wings. It'd be a wet dream for any manager.

If Gourcuff moves to Lyon for around 20million, you'd hear a collective groan from the Arsene Wenger team.

Do people still believe this is true?

In the games they passed to him, he bombed because the French team was about to implode anyway, if you have a manager you dislike its unlikely you will play well for him, happened with us under Ramos.

[Dancubus]

What are you on about mate?

There's only 4 players in the team who were born in France, and 2 of them play international football for different nations.

[Twitchy]

Gourcuff really isn't that good and this comes from someone who's half french and has a soft spot for Bordeaux. He has a lot of ability but he seems to lack something. I can't put my finger on it, it's like he hasn't got much drive if you see what I mean. It's telling that no 'big' club has gone for him and no one seems interested except Lyon. I expect him to end up there. IMO, Bordeaux's best player is probably Ciani. Awesome defender, would have loved him.

[Craiglistee]

Well if you read carefully, I did acknowledge that BAE wasn't french by nationality just french speaking. And I guess our defenders are mostly King, Dawson, Corluka, with the young ones Naughton and Walker? The rest are Gallas, Kaboul, BAE, Bassong who are all french speaking, so thats almost half our backline being french speakers. I could imagine with our luck with injuries that a Kaboul Gallas Bassong BAE backline starting is more than likely.

I was pointing out more in reference to our team culture being very british, what with Harry being our manager and all. I never felt that the French and English cultures could mash up. Look at Arsenal, they are extremely french and I barely see an English man anywhere near their team except Wilshere.

Anyways perhaps I shouldn't have focused so much on Sessagon signing, but on my worry of Spurs becoming as "soft" as Arsenal. I just saw the highlights for the Newcastle game against Villa where there was more than one crunching challenge in midfield. I wonder if our boys could stand up to play like that. Bale definitely, Lennon might injure himself.

I have to admit that Gourcuff I do not watch every week. Most exposure to him was for the WC which he bombed. So I do concede that and for those who watch him play every week, more input would be greatly appreciated.

god knows where you get the french back line from... if you look at the latest back line we have played recently

vs Man City

Corluka - King - Dawson - BAE = one french speaking

vs Young boys away

Corluka - Dawson - Bassong - BAE = two french speaking

vs Stoke

Corluka - Dawson - Kaboul - Bae = two french speaking

not exactly millions of french players... gallas is now actually a british citizen because he has worked in this country for over 5 years... and does speak english... we are a club that still has a lot of british players but spice it up a bit with a few Croat's and French/Camaroon etc players...

[Nidzumi]

I like Gourcuff, he's a decent player but for the amount of money he's going for, I'd rather we go for someone else. I mean we could get a great striker for the prices that are being thrown around.

[edmonds44]

Well if you read carefully, I did acknowledge that BAE wasn't french by nationality just french speaking. And I guess our defenders are mostly King, Dawson, Corluka, with the young ones Naughton and Walker? The rest are Gallas, Kaboul, BAE, Bassong who are all french speaking, so thats almost half our backline being french speakers. I could imagine with our luck with injuries that a Kaboul Gallas Bassong BAE backline starting is more than likely.

I was pointing out more in reference to our team culture being very british, what with Harry being our manager and all. I never felt that the French and English cultures could mash up. Look at Arsenal, they are extremely french and I barely see an English man anywhere near their team except Wilshere.

Anyways perhaps I shouldn't have focused so much on Sessagon signing, but on my worry of Spurs becoming as "soft" as Arsenal. I just saw the highlights for the Newcastle game against Villa where there was more than one crunching challenge in midfield. I wonder if our boys could stand up to play like that. Bale definitely, Lennon might injure himself.

I have to admit that Gourcuff I do not watch every week. Most exposure to him was for the WC which he bombed. So I do concede that and for those who watch him play every week, more input would be greatly appreciated.

there maybe 4 french speaking defenders but all our defenders speak english so i don't see the problem? its like saying we have 3 croation speaking players so we're becoming a croation team? (its only one less player) or we have 3 Portuguese speaking players so we are becoming Portuguese (Gomes, Sandro & GDS)

we are not doing an arsenal our main structure of our team is still brittish... King, Dawson, Bale, Lennon, Defoe, Crouch, Keane, Hudds, Jenas, Hutton, Walker, Naughton, Woodgate (when fit), Bentley, O'hara & Rose these are all of them in the first team... looks a lot more than the 4 french speaking players your talking about

[ABlindGuy]

1. I'm new as both a supporter and a member of the forum. Was looking for a team to support so that I could enjoy more soccer during the year, and Spurs fit the bill. Did a lot of research on the EPL teams and thought this was the most attractive team, for many reasons. I'm excited to get to know the team and follow Spurs this year!

2. I think Gourcuff would be a fantastic addition! I played make-believe manager a couple weeks back and thought that the combo of Hudd, Modric, and Gourcuff in the middle would be seriously formidable. They could rotate as the two central midfielders in a 4-4-2, too. If we could only get a star striker, I think we would be in great shape both in the league and the CL.

Cheers!

[Blackrussian]

Yeah..... And how do they give each other nicknames and all that...!!

Innit but.....?

[gazza]

gourcuff was very good at the world cup the team was just bad he is better than ozil (ozil cannot shoot well gourcuff has a terrific strike and can do freekicks)

[Craiglistee]

there maybe 4 french speaking defenders but all our defenders speak english so i don't see the problem? its like saying we have 3 croation speaking players so we're becoming a croation team? (its only one less player) or we have 3 Portuguese speaking players so we are becoming Portuguese (Gomes, Sandro & GDS)

we are not doing an arsenal our main structure of our team is still brittish... King, Dawson, Bale, Lennon, Defoe, Crouch, Keane, Hudds, Jenas, Hutton, Walker, Naughton, Woodgate (when fit), Bentley, O'hara & Rose these are all of them in the first team... looks a lot more than the 4 french speaking players your talking about

Well I think almost all our players speak English, its more an issue of the language of preference? Do you think Arsenal speaks English on the pitch I wonder? I do feel that the Croatian contingent, say if increased to 5 or 6 would pose an issue, as would any other nationality. It'd end up being an issue of having minority factions within a British team. Now that is not necessarily an issue depending on the personalities involved. Modric looks like a professional person to be honest with you, I can't imagine him leading some mass boycott, nor would our other Croatian players, so I am not accusing anyone of anything here. But if you have someone like Anelka who by all evidence over his playing career, is a problem child, then it might be an issue. But of course Harry is good at managing personality problems. That is why we have him and also notable is how he came in and built a core of players (who are mostly brits as you pointed out) to stabilize the environment.

This thread was initially just a way of discussing the Sessagon transfer possibility and I wanted to point out that Gourcuff might be available. So this whole French/Croat/etc vs British core is quite a segway. I do apologize to the other forum people who are rightly commenting on the players instead.

Perhaps I should have started this thread in the players forum. Moderators do move it as you see fit.

[Ounay]

Gourcuff and his layer have met their club president yesterday ( Mr Jean Louis Triaud ) for tell him his feeling to leave Bordeaux before the mercato end, I think Lyon is first in the list but why not Tottenham ?

Perhaps he doesn't have refind his level before january 2010, we have to be careful !

[BlueCrew LA]

How many league titles have we won with our english based team? Clairefontaine and the French youth system overall is a superb youth system it's record speaks for itself. Who cares if they're french if they could help us, I think this may be another case of English fans over-rating their own players.