Brought in by Harry Redknapp during his very brief spell at Birmingham, Cheikh N’Doye didn’t last very long in the Championship, returning to Angers SCO over the summer on loan to see out the rest of his two-year contract.
During his time at St Andrew’s, the veteran midfielder made 37 league appearances but never managed to recapture his Ligue 1 form that once managed to amusingly get him linked with a move to Manchester City.
‘So happy’ he had ‘no words’ when he finally returned to Angers, the 32-year-old has started every game for the French club since his arrival, and even captained them in a 1-0 win over Monaco midweek.
Speaking about the player to Le Vestiaire on RMC Sport, Olivier Pickeu, the Ligue 1 outfit’s director of football, explained why things didn’t work out for N’Doye at Birmingham.
He said: “Harry Redknapp called me and said ‘But he’s rubbish’. I told him, ‘coach, he’s not Mesut Özil, but he’s a really good player, he was our captain and scored nine goals a season’. After that, it didn’t work out for him.
“I was surprised about that too, but they had three managers that year, it was complicated. He someone who needs stability. He needed that experience abroad, that’s why he asked to leave, but it was evident he would return eventually”.
Joining Angers from US Créteil in 2015, the central midfielder has scored 16 goals and picked up 11 assists in 77 appearances for the Ligue 1 side.
Maybe Harry Redknapp should have used him differently instead of complaining about how good he is to his former club?
