Former Tottenham Hotspur player and French player Stephane Dalmat has revealed that his move to the London club felt more like a forced move than a career choice.
Although the French midfielder has been away from the game, he has spoken about his time at Spurs and admitted he was never completely comfortable joining the club in the first place.
He suggests that external pressure, whether from his agent, the hierarchy at the club or other influences, played a big role in his decision to leave, rather than his own beliefs.
Stephane Dalmat slams agent over Spurs move
Dalmat told Gironde IV:
“It’s the agents who want to make money from transfers. At that time, my agents, everything they got between Châteauroux to Reims, Reims to Marseille, Marseille to Paris, Paris to Inter…No one told me that career-wise I was better off doing something else…that I should settle down.
“Eric Di Meco and Jean-Philippe Durand, who were the sporting directors at the time, mainly told me to leave. They had come to an agreement with Tottenham and Newcastle. I had Eric Di Meco call me and tell him that we had come to an agreement with those two clubs.”
“I told him that it was impossible for me to go abroad. Either you stay at Marseille or you find me another club in France. Monaco, Lyon, Paris, 50…Even though I wanted to stay at Marseille, the contract with PSG was fixed for 70 euros.”
“I didn’t go to the youth academy, so I wasn’t trained. I was immediately faced with a fait accompli. I made a lot of transfers in four years. When you change clubs so often, you don’t have stability, so… when I left Inter, I was in a bit of a hole.
“I played at other clubs like Toulouse, Tottenham, Bordeaux…I didn’t have the staying power and especially when I was at Reims, I didn’t have the right people or people around me at the time to advise me not to move too quickly and to take my time. I think I would have liked to have been told, ‘I’m going to stay at Reims for two seasons to test my skills,’ rather than making a big move to Marseille. But then who turned down Marseille when they were 19?” Marseille was something else. ”
Dalmatt’s time at Tottenham was a compromise
This meant that his time at Spurs was always overshadowed by a sense of compromise.
Although he eventually accepted the transfer, he explained that it was never his ideal destination.
Agents aim to represent the interests of players, but in some cases the momentum of a club’s recruitment strategy is more important.
Players may find themselves wearing shirts they didn’t really choose.
Clubs need to ensure that new signings are committed, not just physically but mentally.
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