Jérémie Aliadière’s career was supposed to produce much more than it actually did, and it must be a frustration for the 37-year-old that nearly every interview he does revolves around what might have been.
At the age of 16 he moved from the France national training centre to Arsenal, in a switch which caused a lot of fuss in his own country. With Clairefontaine having an excellent reputation and seen as the place to be for the best French youngsters back then, the change to an English club was much more controversial than it would be now.
It brought Aliadière and his parents much more pressure than he’d expected and all added to a difficult start at Arsenal. Speaking to L’Equipe, the former footballer has once again had to insist the move wasn’t motivated by money: “I only heard about the contract, the money, but I didn’t care, even if that was part of the thing. What interested me was playing with my models Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit and Nicolas Anelka. It was a childhood dream!”
“In college, I was taken out the back door to avoid the journalists. I had become an attraction. They were going after me.”
To his surprise, Aliadière was initially required to train with the kids at Arsenal and this is when when the culture shock really hit, especially because he couldn’t speak any English at the time: “I was very reserved, so in front of about forty kids who looked at me in great silence, I was stressed… I was going to shake everyone’s hand… but the English just say “morning”. Everyone laughed. It was starting well, they were already laughing at me… It didn’t give me any confidence.”
A difficult first year resulted in benefits for the then youngster, as he was able to use his natural talent, what he’d learned in France, and add an English slant to it: “I got used to it and finally I was super happy to have arrived at Arsenal then and not later, because I wouldn’t have had that British side.”
Arsenal had paid for a house in North London where Aliadière and his grandparents would live. Unfortunately, he was left alone quickly when his grandparents returned to France, unable to settle, but he didn’t want to tell the Gunners for fear of being placed with a host family.
Things started looking up on the pitch, and as he was scoring goals and winning matches for Arsenal’s age restricted teams, he was quickly liked by his teammates.
As fans of the Premier League club will know, soon after getting his first team chance, Aliadière was hit by a cruciate ligament injury and then struggles grew from there.
Unable to break through more fully, he went on loan three times before joining Middlesbrough on a permanent deal.
That last switch is something he regrets, telling L’Equipe: “If I was to relive my career, I would never leave Arsenal. I left just when I was going to win… If I didn’t break through with the Gunners, it was because I wasn’t psychologically ready. I always felt inferior to the first team. I didn’t have that ego, that self-confidence.”
