{"id":25360,"date":"2025-10-20T21:17:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T01:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/20\/french-player-claims-he-was-asked-to-join-spurs-against-his-wishes\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T21:17:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T01:17:45","slug":"french-player-claims-he-was-asked-to-join-spurs-against-his-wishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/20\/french-player-claims-he-was-asked-to-join-spurs-against-his-wishes\/","title":{"rendered":"French player claims he was asked to join Spurs against his wishes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_74 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/20\/french-player-claims-he-was-asked-to-join-spurs-against-his-wishes\/#Stephane_Dalmat_slams_agent_over_Spurs_move\" >Stephane Dalmat slams agent over Spurs move<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/20\/french-player-claims-he-was-asked-to-join-spurs-against-his-wishes\/#Dalmatts_time_at_Tottenham_was_a_compromise\" >Dalmatt&#8217;s time at Tottenham was a compromise<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>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.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Stephane_Dalmat_slams_agent_over_Spurs_move\"><\/span>Stephane Dalmat slams agent over Spurs move<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Dalmat told Gironde IV:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;It&#8217;s the agents who want to make money from transfers. At that time, my agents, everything they got between Ch\u00e2teauroux to Reims, Reims to Marseille, Marseille to Paris, Paris to Inter&#8230;No one told me that career-wise I was better off doing something else&#8230;that I should settle down.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;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.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI 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&#8230;Even though I wanted to stay at Marseille, the contract with PSG was fixed for 70 euros.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t go to the youth academy, so I wasn&#8217;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&#8217;t have stability, so&#8230; when I left Inter, I was in a bit of a hole.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I played at other clubs like Toulouse, Tottenham, Bordeaux&#8230;I didn&#8217;t have the staying power and especially when I was at Reims, I didn&#8217;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, &#8216;I&#8217;m going to stay at Reims for two seasons to test my skills,&#8217; rather than making a big move to Marseille. But then who turned down Marseille when they were 19?&#8221; Marseille was something else. \u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Dalmatts_time_at_Tottenham_was_a_compromise\"><\/span>Dalmatt&#8217;s time at Tottenham was a compromise<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><picture><source type=\"image\/webp\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.caughtoffside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/stephane-dalmat-of-tottenham-hotspur-414x286.jpg.webp 414w,https:\/\/icdn.caughtoffside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/stephane-dalmat-of-tottenham-hotspur-630x436.jpg.webp 630w,https:\/\/icdn.caughtoffside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/stephane-dalmat-of-tottenham-hotspur-768x531.jpg.webp 768w,https:\/\/icdn.caughtoffside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/stephane-dalmat-of-tottenham-hotspur-770x533.jpg.webp 770w,https:\/\/icdn.caughtoffside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/stephane-dalmat-of-tottenham-hotspur-900x623.jpg.webp 900w,https:\/\/icdn.caughtoffside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/stephane-dalmat-of-tottenham-hotspur-1200x830.jpg.webp 1200w,https:\/\/icdn.caughtoffside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/stephane-dalmat-of-tottenham-hotspur.jpg.webp 1359w\" data-sizes=\"(min-width:1230px) 770px, (min-width:1020px) 630px, (min-width:900px) 880px, (min-width:680px) 97vw, (min-width:414px) 414px, 100vw\"><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Spurs&#8217; Stefan Dalmatt (Photo by Clive Mason\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This meant that his time at Spurs was always overshadowed by a sense of compromise.<\/p>\n<p>Although he eventually accepted the transfer, he explained that it was never his ideal destination.<\/p>\n<p>Agents aim to represent the interests of players, but in some cases the momentum of a club&#8217;s recruitment strategy is more important.<\/p>\n<p>Players may find themselves wearing shirts they didn&#8217;t really choose.<\/p>\n<p>Clubs need to ensure that new signings are committed, not just physically but mentally.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>&#8216;Attitude problem&#8217; \u2013 Tottenham star player left out of squad due to attitude problem<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- Article End -->\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[40],"class_list":{"0":"post-25360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}