I happened to read an interview with Aston Villa defender Lucas Digne.
Something caught my attention in particular, something that I wondered what other Newcastle United fans would think about it.
I will come to that in a bit.
After having been a bit part player at PSG and Barcelona and making only limited starts, Lucas Digne was bought by Everton in 2018 for an initial £18m transfer fee.
In January 2022, Everton then sold the France international to Aston Villa for £25m, that then saw Villa allow Matt Targett to join Newcastle United on loan as we were deep in a relegation fight. The new NUFC owners and Eddie Howe facing a desperate situation thanks to Mike Ashley and Steve Bruce.
Lucas Digne had been dropped by then Everton boss Rafa Benitez and was leaving Goodison Park one way or another in January 2022. Before he joined Aston Villa, the left-back was linked by the media with Newcastle United, with interest said to be there from Eddie Howe and NUFC.
As always with transfer stories, no idea whether there was serious interest from Newcastle.
Anyway, I remembered that Lucas Digne transfer link when reading this new interview.
Digne talking to media in France ahead of this summer’s World Cup, also stuff about Aston Villa.
The interview with French magazine So Foot saw Lucas Digne bizarrely (at least it is to me…) mention that when he joined Aston Villa more than four years ago, in January 2022, he insisted on living in London, rather than Birmingham.
Lucas Digne telling So Foot why: “It was a family decision. When I signed for Aston Villa my son started school but in Birmingham there aren’t any French schools. It was really important that our children could read and write in both French and English. In London, they have the opportunity to do both.”
The player then making clear that it isn’t just him amongst the Aston Villa squad who is travelling such large distances every day to training and back every day: “There are three or four of us who make this trip every day and it’s far from insurmountable.”
Lucas Digne though conceding that: “It can be a bit of a race against time.”
Is it just me who thinks this is unacceptable?
Would I be happy if Newcastle United players were doing this? Indeed, are any doing similar that I don’t know about, NUFC stars living 100+ miles away from Tyneside for whatever reason(s)?
I must admit, whenever I have been to Birmingham I haven’t thought, “You know what. I’d love to live here!”
However, if my employer had invested such massive amounts of money on me, was paying me millions each year, would I not feel just a little bit obliged to actually live somewhere in the area?
It just feels disrespectful to me.
It isn’t like being a professional footballer in the top tier is a career where you can work from home and go into the ‘office’ once every couple of weeks.
Not so long ago, Newcastle United had more French players than any other Premier League club, the likes of Cabaye, Sissoko, Obertan, Debuchy, Haidara, Yanga-Mbiwa, Abeid (born in France), Kemen, Remy, Ben Arfa, Ba (born in France), Marveaux, Amilfitano, Gouffran, Cabella, Riviere…
Never once did I hear that they couldn’t live on Tyneside and had to live 100+ miles away.
Maybe Newcastle Upon Tyne was/is a hotbed of top notch French schools…
Or possibly, maybe they just thought, you know what, whilst it wouldn’t be “insurmountable” to live a serious distance from where my ‘work’ is, maybe it is the respectful thing to do AND the best in terms of putting yourself in the best shape for playing football, you know, the thing that you are paid fortunes for doing.
With the millions that Lucas Digne (and his Aston Villa teammates) will earn, what exactly was there to stop him, for the limited number of years he will be there, from him paying for a French teacher to look after his kids’ education outside of normal school hours?