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Howay Cabaye – New signing gives his first interview to NUFC

Posted on June 11th, 2011 | 48 Comments |

Cabaye demonstrated his abilities and ruined the turf.
Wor Cabaye
Yesterday Newcastle marked their first foray into the transfer martket with Frenchman Yohan Cabaye – a fully fledged French international who, in his spare time, completely strips football pitches of grass for no other reason than “because I can”. Even if he doesn’t work out, he’ll be keeping the groundsmen busy with that kind of superhero-esque power.

Today, the new signing gave his first interview to nufcTV and, as you might expect, answered questions put forth to him by an interviewer. Being the kind and generous soul that I am, I decided to transcribe all 5 minutes of it for you all! (Also in the event you, y’know, don’t have nufcTV or something.)

Anthony Marshall: Yohan, welcome to Newcastle. Are you pleased to be here?

Yohan Cabaye: Yes, I am very happy, I am really happy. We have just seen the facilities and the magnificent stadium. The people here are very welcoming, so it’s really great to be here.

AM: What were your first impressions of Newcastle and St. James Park?

YC: As I said earlier, it is a magnificent stadium which is very impressive, and from all the players who haveplayed here and the people I have spoken to, they have all said it has an amazing atmosphere. I am really excited to meet the fans and see what the stadium will be like when it is full. I was pleasantly suprrised by the stadium and how full it can get.

AM: You spent your whole career at Lille; how difficult was it to leave?

YC: It is true that the last game of the season was difficult because I knew I would be leaving. It was difficult, I knew it would be, but not as sad as the moment when I left. It is true that I have only known Lille, and that is where I am from, so leaving that region and my family is not something that is easy. But there you go, that is what you have to do for football. And I am coming with my wife and daughter so I’m very happy to come here and it is not a problem leaving my home region.

AM: People talk about the Premier League being the best league in the world. Is that the case in your opinion?

YC: For me, there is the Premier League and the Spanish league, which represents lots of things. At every game there are many fans and the match itself creates an incredible atmosphere. I want to adapt to the rhythm here, which is a lot quicker, but I’m certain that it is one of the best leagues in the world.

AM: You had a fantastic season last year winning the league and cup double in France. Was that the highlight of your career so far?

YC: It is the highlight of my whole career – it is my first two titles, and that will be engraved on me forever. It was some fabulous moments, as winning something with the clube who have trained you isn’t easy. The club hadn’t won anything for 50 years, so all the players and staff were really happy. It’s the highlight of my career since I started.

AM: And winning four France caps as well, how proud are you to play for your country?

YC: Very proud. Really, really proud. Each player wants to represent their country for sure, and when the opportunity presents itself it is an enormous moment to play for your country. It is somethign really great in my career, and I hope to be able to continue to play as playing for the national team. It is something very important.

AM: Does playing at Newcastle give you the opportunity to gain more French caps?

YC: I don’t know! I am just hoping I am going to have some good matches for Newcastle and am going to integrate myself. If I am lucky enough to be good on the pitch then I hope I would continue to be called up for the national team.

AM: For those people that don’t know can you explain to us what sort of player you are?

YC: I like being on the ball, I really like playing with the ball and I like making lots of passes. I am not a big dribbler, but I like to unsettle the opposition with short or long passes. I like going for goal, and am also a player who knows how to defend, and make lots of effort to get the ball back.

AM: Are you excited about the season ahead with Newcastle?

YC: Yes, especially when I see the stadium and the facilities that are here. I am excited to start training and meet my teammates but now I am going to make the most of the holidays seeing as last season was so long. I am really excited about discovering the Premier League, St. James’ Park and all fo Newcastle’s fans. I hope this season goeas as well as possible for the team and for me. I am really excited to wear this new shirt.

AM: The double last season in France was your first domestic honours as a player; is that something you hope to build on at Newcastle?

YC: Yes, it is true that winning makes you want to win, and winning a title – with all the emotions that go with it is amazing. You always want to win after that and I hope to have the best results possible with Newcastle and see how the season goes. I am certain that it makes me want to earn other titles.

AM: And finally do you have a message for the Newcastle fans?

YC: I am very happy to have signed for Newcastle. I am excited to meet you and know the atmosphere you can create at St. James Park and I hope that we will win quite a few matches next season to make you happy as well!

So basically the lad is really, really, really happy to be in Toon and loves the word “really”. From what I’ve seen of him at Lille and at International, he is a very tidy player and I’m sure he can certainly bring something new to the team – he’ll also give another French speaking player to Ben Arfa who is a bit like a fish out of water at times due to the language barrier.

Let’s all give Cabaye a hearty, Geordie welcome to Newcastle!

NUFCBlog Author: Thump Some say his bones are black and white but that is yet to be medically proven. Currently writes for a few different publications and likes to assert his imaginary authority on nobody in particular. Beware: eats children. Thump has written 36 articles on this blog.

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Posted on by Thump in category: Player interviews and Thump and Transfers and Yohan Cabaye
Comment on this post

48 Responses

  3. Welcome to the TOON son.Keep ya heed doon and yr ar5e up and yull de alreet. Keep them comin in .!!!!!! HWTL.

  5. “he’ll also give another French speaking player to Ben Arfa who is a bit like a fish out of water at times due to the language barrier.”

    Ben Arfa has said himself, him and Tiote get on great due to them both speaking french.

    That comment above lost me!!!

  7. Then we will sign Zogs so no one can be left out. Looking forward to seeing this beast. Loves passing, killer passing? I like it a lot, but we will now need some awesome strikers to make benefit of his passing skills.

  8. well,sounds promising enough.but then again nowadays they all start that way.nonetheless i’ll stop being pessimistic,
    here’s to what’ll hopefully be a great signing!
    oh,and Indian MAgpie,where you at?i thought i was the only one stuck in this country.get a lot of stick for being a geordie from all the manure fans here but they can go feck off

  10. Thanks for the detail – one (pedantic) point. Think the pronunciation of his name means that it would be better to say “Why aye, Cabaye” than “Howay”!

  11. Chateauneuf de Pardieu.
    But more seriously, if HBA hasn’t at least spent his year off learning a bit of English to be able to communicate with players, journos etc. , it’s not a great sign…

  12. the most important player we could get is zogs.. we need him. forget the other fancy names. getting zogs back in would have huge positive impact on team selction and positions.

  13. spot on CC@12….he would give the team good balance…hopefully he has left his “disruptive” side behind him though…

  14. I hope this lad turns out to be awesome for us. He sounds positive at least, if one ignores the usual bumf players come out with. Great to have him on board can’t wait to see him play. And well done to all at the club for getting this one over the line!

    I just hope the situation with Barton and Nolan doesn’t sour his welcome in to the group. Situations like that can be poisonous.

  16. Just one question really. Was the lad speaking in english, or was this translated? Not that I see it being a problem, as he will no doubt pick up the english he needs in no time, its just curiosity really, cos aye it’ll help that 2 other midfielders speak French, but the rest of the team, club and toon don’t.

    I think its a fantastic bit of business by the club here, he looks an excellent player at a brilliant price!

    I don’t think we can ever really take anything from these interviews and press conferences, cos they all say the same thing. It’s like they’re reading off a script! They’re hardly gonna say “the club is shit, it never wins anything, the facilities are a joke and the staff are morons” are they?

    Only thing of any interest is the lad saying winning in France has made him want more trophies. Well son, forget that idea, you’re at the toon now, and I’m well pleased that you are! Allè les garçons!

  17. good signing cabaye,i just hope we dont get rid of both nolan and barton.ideally we should keep one of the two,is there any truth in the demba ba rumour?

  18. Liking the suit ;-) Class

    Trojan 69, if you believe the mirror and simon bird, then yes the ba rumour is true.

  19. From the chat I’ve seen it seems more likely that Zog might be going to Everton, my gut feeling is that he will not be coming here, unfortunately.

  20. Magpie666 said:
    Thanks for the detail – one (pedantic) point. Think the pronunciation of his name means that it would be better to say “Why aye, Cabaye” than “Howay”!

    Yeah but every blog and news site (including nufc.co.uk) played on the “Why aye, Cabaye!” thing so I thought I’d change it up – doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t pronounced any differently though!

    Scott Said:
    Just one question really. Was the lad speaking in english, or was this translated?

    It was subtitled, mate – badly! I was trying to keep up with the spoken word when I was typing and noticed that whoever translated it loves to use commas before conjunctions when it wasn’t a list. As a grammar nazi, this upset me greatly but I was too tired to care at that point lol

  21. Thought we might have had someone playing for the U21 team, SammyObei, Airey, Tavernier or Alnwick, I think they are all English, to name but four. Is LuaLua qualified for England as well?

  22. Thump, yeah it’s really annoying when you think that you have written a perfect bit of prose, only to discover after send has been hit, a glaring mistake. ;)

  24. here we’ve been ripped off!!!,we appear to have signed nick tilsley from coronation street.
    jimbob,didn’t know it was in the mirror,just someone i know told me earlier,apparently we would get him for next to nowt.

  26. Thump is that your article? Lots of impressive stats, just hope they (or he) can translate as impressively into the EPL. I did rather skim through it, so might have missed some of the errors but critics can be vicious when you tackle an subject with a lot of statistics innit. ;)

  27. Trojan, the only ‘source’ I could find came from the mirror web site, just another article with no quotes etc. If we believed every paper, blog, twitter rumour, we would have a brand new team by now :-)

  28. Bugg*r, “a subject”, :)

    My missus checks any articles I write and tends to rip them apart to make them in any way, grammatically correct.

  29. I’d like us to get Zog and Sturridge and feel they’d be worth 10m plus for Zog, and 12 for Sturridge.

    If we didn’t lose Enrique, Barton and Nolan then we would probably still have a much enhanced squad (drafting in Airey as extra striker cover), If we lost Barton/Nobby then need at least one replacement mf too.

    As a miniumum, mind!

  30. Just heard on the old twitter network that It is believed Demba Ba has agreed to join Newcastle!

  31. Happy someone of his quality would want to come here and hey, the price is right.
    Only thing is, I hope he was’nt brought in to replace Joey ?
    So here’s my list of who i would like to see come and go.

    Outs

    Raylor
    Williamson
    Shola
    Guthrie
    Perch
    Lovenkrands
    Enrique-Joey-Nolan could all be outta here though i hope not

    Ins
    Ireland
    N’Zogbia
    Cabeye
    Long
    Ba
    Sturridge
    Izaguirre
    Taylor
    Hangeland

    Appears now , we wont get either Gervinho or Gameiro, if in fact we signed most of the above, would that be a good indication of the clubs ambition ? and perhaps change Enrique’s mind or is he determined to go ?
    And what about Joey & Nolan, are they being forced out ? too much influence and as Joey said, they (only one they Ashley) wants younger , better and cheaper players.
    In which case it’s my belief they dont want to set a presedent by increasing either of the three’s wages and hope to make a profit from selling all three.

  32. Not sure about Ba, sure he did well, but too short a time period to really tell?
    Sturridge is the guy i like, going to be a great player if he continues the way he’s going.
    Relies a lot on pace and gives his all in effort, creates havoc with defenses and in time when he learns to properly direct his energies will be some player.
    He gave Enrique (who’s no slouch) a hard time and few PL defenders relish facing him.
    A serious offer is something the club should contemplate, we could have another great no. 9 here.
    If we get Ba on a free, then we could also afford Long who is improving steadily and gets his goals and we will i need another front man.

  34. Nah, it isn’t GOT. Don’t have the energy to do that much research for a volunteer job – either way, I probably wouldn’t do that level of math for a paid job lol

    @Clint: listening to it now. Very interesting. If I were sober, I’d probably write about it… but it’s about Sunday papers and it’s on talkSPORT; which, to me, is two parts of the trifecta of evil.

  35. Thump says:
    June 11, 2011 at 8:09 pm

    “If I were sober, I’d probably write about it… but it’s about Sunday papers and it’s on talkSPORT; which, to me, is two parts of the trifecta of evil.”

    I’m completely sober myself, but I was thinking much the same thing Thump.

  36. Clint, That sam matterface, who I think is the interviewer in the link, is married to natalie sawyer ( fit skysports news presenter)

    Not relevent I know, but oh well.

    Anyway im sure the press will have us linked to a new target tomorrow, and skysports will let us know that their sources understand ba is on the way to tyneside…

  37. Agreed,
    just thought it was interesting, as it was in words rather than print.
    If ya’ get me drift?
    ;)

  40. Aye,
    squawkshite & sly sports are full of biatches, they’re in cahoots too, one & the same.
    Incestuous & vain!

  44. :-) Haha….I wish worky, I just remembered georgie thompson…

    Seriously though, matterface and sawyer? Impossible is nothing :-)

  46. Dont know millie clode worky, Havent seen skysports news in two years! She your fave then? :-)

  47. Jimbob says:
    June 11, 2011 at 10:13 pm

    “Dont know millie clode worky, Havent seen skysports news in two years! She your fave then?”

    They’re not really my type on SkySports Jimbob, but aye, she would be my favourite I suppose.

  48. Every summer there are posts on here with lists of about half a dozen players they want to see go, and six to ten they want in! It’s never THAT dramatic. Try to think of, say, 2-3 more out, 3-4 more in…maybe not even that much transfer action.

    Personally I don’t want to see too many go. We will get plenty of injuries, and need the Raylors and Perch’s as cover, plus blooding a few more youngsters here and there. If we end up with 3 more top quality, experienced players in the squad than we had to choose from last year (plus the players returning from injury) then that’d be mint thanks very much!