Connections - France 3

In the third part of our look at the connections between the hosts of this summers European Championships and Tottenham we discover the European game where they played with twelve men and when the French national side came to White Hart Lane.
There is also some Frenchmen who won their Spurs both past and Present.

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Our Second meeting with a French side in European competition came in 1971-72 when we played Nantes in the UEFA Cup. The Second Round tie saw us play away in the first leg. In a poor display, the Daily Telegraph called it ‘one of the worst ever displays’ and ‘seldom will Tottenham survive such a roasting without punishment’ we drew 0-0.
 
The return game saw Martin Peters score after 15 minutes. This time a much better performance, the Times suggested Jennings could have sat on a chair and watched, but Spurs were unable to finish off the French side and a very nervous crowd (possibly remembering the away goal rule that saw us eliminated the previous time we met a French side) watched Spurs stumble home and into the next round with the only goal in the two games.

There was a farcical moment on the hour one of the Frenchmen went down the trainer rushed on to tend him and was ordered off by the ref. The player limped off and a substitute took his place. The player on the touchline having received treatment then returned to the pitch and for a while the French managed to have 12 players on the field.

Left - Arthur Rowe, who would later be the manager of the 1951 Championship winning side, see below.

Etienne Capoue, (top)  joined Spurs in 2013 from Toulouse. The French international midfielder moved on to Watford in 2015. He played 24 games for Tottenham with one goal. Strangely both he, William Gallas and Pascal Chimbonda are all also eligible to play for Guadeloupe in the Leeward Islands. Which is an ‘overseas region’ of France and as such is not officially recognized by FIFA.

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An international connection a little nearer home was when the French side met England at White Hart Lane in 1933. On 6th December, Arthur Rowe at center half played his only England game whilst Willie Hall (9) at inside left won the first of his ten caps. England won that day 4-1. Just over seventeen thousand were in The Lane that Wednesday afternoon to watch the game.
 Below - The pre match presentations. The England skipper is Roy Goodall of Huddersfield. This was the first of England five visits to The Lane.
The rather shy referee is in fact  John Langenus, from Belgium, who took charge of the first ever World Cup final in 1930, (18).

This summer will be Hugo Lloris’s second European Championships having also played in two World Cups. Hugo captained France for the first time in November 2010 when the French beat England at Wembley. The French were 2-0 up when Peter Crouch came off the bench in the 85th minute and scored 56 seconds later for his last (and 22nd) England goal. More than 30 of Hugo’s caps have arrived since he joined Spurs in 2012.

Hugo was captain again at the Euros 2012 when they drew with England 1-1. The English had Scott Parker in the side and Jermain Defoe joined him from the bench (10).
 
The last time the two teams met was in 2015 at Wembley with Dier, Alli and  Kane in the English side as Alli scored his first England goal past Hugo Lloris. Hugo playing his third game against England became the second  French goalie with Spurs connections to do so (6).

Another Frenchman who played for Tottenham was Noe Pamarot (left) from 2004-06. Noe was a central defender who also played at right back. He was at Portsmouth on loan from Nice when we signed him. He scored twice in his 23 games for Spurs. He left us to return to Portsmouth and later moved to Spanish football.


In addition to the various friendly fixtures Tottenham have toured France on four occasions and again the details of these can be found in The French Tours, (11).
 

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A number of Tottenham players have also featured for French clubs, besides the big names such as Chris Waddle (Marseille) and  Clive Allen (Bordeaux). When the Falklands War started Ossie Ardiles found he couldn’t return to England so we loaned him to PSG.

Lesser known players have also crossed the channel such as Joe Allen who scored in his only first team appearance for Tottenham in 1933. The ex- Northfleet boy later played for Racing Club de Roubaix.
Phil Gray, the Northern Ireland Youth international played five games for us in the 1980’s  and later joined Nancy and Charlie Williams our goalkeeper from our non-league days played in a number of countries including France with the Olympigue Club Lille.
 
A number of our players also have Monaco on their CV’s including, Jurgen Klinmann, Emmanuel Adebayor, Glenn Hoddle, Eldur Gudjohnsen and Dimitar Berbatov.

Apart from the full international in 1933 the French national team has appeared at White Hart Lane on other occasions. In 2005 The countries met at Under 21 level and the home sides skipper that night was Michael Dawson. Tom Huddlestone and Darren Bent also played under an ex-Spur as England manager Peter Taylor. A record crowd for a England 21 home game of 34,574 was present to watch a 1-1 draw.  In 1983 the French played Czechoslovakia in the European Youth Championship here and then in 2006 they played England at Under 16 level with one Spurs player in the home side Marcel McKie.
 
In the last part of our French Connection we have the first Frenchman to win International honours whilst at Tottenham, our most recent European encounter, some more links at international level and a few more Frenchmen who swapped their homeland for N17.
 
COYS
Keith Harrison.
t- Keith 16024542
f- peter shearman (old non de plume)
You can my full archive at -  View Full Bio

Notes - 6 - see - Tottenham Mysteries - The Invisible Goalkeeper.
9 - Willie Hall - Who would set England records is featured in - http://www.indiaspurs.com/blog/hotspur-towers-willie-hall1
10 - See Spurs and the Euros part 7
11 - Hotspur Towers - the French Tours, - http://www.indiaspurs.com/blog/hotspur-towers-the-french-tours
18 - See Flying Down to Rio, - http://www.indiaspurs.com/blog/hotspur-towers-the-international-index