Still a flying Frenchman?Well he might somthing like that if he turns down the recent pleas of former Newcastle favourite Laurent Robert. Robert is a free agent after being released by Larissa FC of Greece and had been training with Fabrice Pancrate at Paris St Germain. And it’s Pancrate who is acting as the go-between after Robert asked him to put a good word in for him with Chris Hughton.
According to reports in The Journal and The Times, Pancrate has passed on Robert’s phone number and left it up to Hughton to make a decision on whether or not to bring the former French international back for a second spell at Newcastle and Pancrate is quoted as saying via an interpreter:
“I had a lot of conversations with Laurent and he told me about how amazing this city was, how incredible the fans are and how much I would enjoy my time here.
“As soon as I walked through the doors I realised he was right.
“I think Laurent is in talks with Paris St Germain at the moment, but he told me that he would like to come back here.(more…)
Modest Dave.Well after Worky posting that wonderful photo of one of my all time favourite players, I felt we couldn’t leave it at that. So, being a little indulgent, I wanted to share with you my reminiscences of a great Newcastle United footballer (and gorgeous guy), one of the best exports to make it out of France: David Ginola.
David joined Newcastle in 1995 in a £2.5 million move from Paris St Germain. He had been voted the French Player of the Year, and the French Players, Player of the year in 1994 (probably before they were booted out of the World Cup). By all accounts, he must have been happy to arrive in old Angleterre after being made a scapegoat for the French team missing out on a place in that year’s World Cup Finals. With France carefully playing out a 1-1 draw against Bulgaria, knowing they only needed a point to take them to the finals, they brought on Daveed as a late substitute, and yes, you guessed it, he tried an overly flamboyant pass to Cantona, which was intercepted, Bulgaria scored, and Les Bleus were going no where. National outrage followed and David decided in the circumstances he would scarper overseas. (more…)
He made us sing and he made us danceFormer Newcastle United star David Ginola has been talking about what it means to pull the black and white shirt on.
“When I signed for Newcastle I didn’t know the English mentality, I didn’t know about the English tradition and I came straight away to the North East – and its one part of the world that is even different from the rest of England,” said Ginola.
“My main concern was to see the involvement of the players in the club. When you wear that zebra shirt, it’s a whole tradition behind you.
“Even if you’re French and you’ve just arrived, you need to know what’s going on. The Geordies are not the same as the Brummies, or the Cockneys, it’s a proper mentality and you need to know what goes on in the city before you wear that shirt – you have a lot of responsibility.”
Anyway, no sense in transcribing the whole interview here. You can read it on Sky Sports.
