A former Tottenham defender has confessed that he was not overly keen on making some of the moves he did during his career, including his switch to the Lilywhites.
Tottenham Hotspur endured a bleak period in the 1990s and until around 2005, with the club’s upward trajectory beginning when Martin Jol took over.
In that period, the Lilywhites had a lot of journeyman-like players who struggled to make an impression at White Hart Lane, with plenty of turnover in the squad.
One man who played on loan at Spurs during the 2003-04 season has now revealed that he regrets making the move to the North London club.
Former Tottenham midfielder hopes he had been advised better
The player in question is Stephane Dalmat, who arrived at the Lane on loan from Inter Milan in the summer of 2003, and he made an impressive start to his time in the Premier League.
However, his performances dropped off in the second half of the season, and his attitude off the pitch also caused some consternation at Tottenham, who decided not to make the move permanent.
The Frenchman moved around a lot during his career, playing for 11 different clubs, and he admits that he was poorly advised.
MORE SPURS STORIES
Dalmat told Girondins 4 Ever: “It’s the agents who want to make money on transfers. My agents, at the time, between the transfers from Châteauroux to Lens, from Lens to Marseille, Marseille to Paris, Paris to Inter, everything they picked up… Not one of them told me it was better to do something else, career-wise… That I should settle down
“It was mainly Éric Di Meco and Jean-Philippe Durand, who were sporting directors at the time, who told me to leave. They reached an agreement with Tottenham and Newcastle. I had Éric Di Meco call me and tell me that there was an agreement with these two clubs.
“I told him that there was no way I was going abroad. It was either I stay in Marseille, or they find me another French club, and there aren’t fifty: Monaco, Lyon, Paris… The deal was made for €70 at PSG, even though I wanted to stay in Marseille.
“I didn’t go to a youth academy, so I wasn’t trained. I was immediately presented with a fait accompli. I had a lot of transfers in the space of four years. When you change clubs often, you don’t have stability, so… When I left Inter, I was in a bit of a hole.
“I played for other clubs, Toulouse, Tottenham, Bordeaux… I didn’t have continuity, and I didn’t have the right people or entourage at the time to advise me properly and tell me to take my time, not to move too fast, especially when I was at Lens. I would have liked to have been told ‘stay at Lens for a second season to confirm your skills’, rather than making a big move to Marseille. But then, who turns down Marseille when they’re 19? Marseille was something else.”
Cynics will say that Dalmat is trying to shift blame and should take responsibility for his decisions. He could certainly have been clear to his agent about what he wanted.
However, the reality is that most of us make mistakes in our twenties and are not mature enough to make big career decisions.
The majority of footballers’ careers happen in their twenties, which is why it becomes incredibly important for them to have the right people around them who have their best interests at heart.
