Ben Shephard

I think Bordeaux was perfect for me.

it was perfect for many reasons i go it's great city great city um i it was very good the way that i was able to learn quick uh french football how it works you know my first three games you can make an impact but you know you rely on the players they were very good we won so we got away from the danger area then we had about a spell of no winning drawing too many games where it gave me the time to see to learn and to make decisions

And then as soon as we changed those things, the team went to another level and we finished the season flying.

You know when you don't want the season to finish?

Because you're playing so well, yeah.

You're winning and winning and winning and winning.

And that made us go from nowhere to the top six, get in Europe, which we celebrated like...

winning a trophy yeah sure because it was no no one was talking about us as well you know when you're coming behind yeah yeah everybody was talking about nice saint etienne montpellier nobody bought bordeaux and somehow we go there and then i was caught in the middle of uh when the club is for sale our owner living and a new owner coming which means that the owner who's living

It was going, so he wouldn't really spend any money that was not his in a few months.

And the new owners, they were not in, so they couldn't spend any money.

And I found myself in a very difficult situation.

It was a shame, really.

It was a shame.

Yeah, that's as simple as that.

We love three very good players.

They helped me a lot the year before.

One was Malcom, he went to Barcelona for £42m.

The other one was Martin Braithwaite, he played for Middlesbrough, now he went to Spain.

And Meite, a central midfielder, he went to Torino, on loan from Monaco.

three key players at the end of the season.