If you’re a Tottenham fan and you’ve already forgotten who Clinton N’Jié is, we don’t blame you.
After all, the Cameroon winger was only there for a brief season, and his impact wasn’t exactly memorable.
Fourteen appearances in all competitions led to just one assist, which never really justified the £7m the Premier League decided to throw at Lyon for his services.
A return to Ligue 1 was quickly organised in the form of a loan to Marseille, with George-Kevin N’Koudou going the other way, with N’Jié now back in France permanently.
While he’s performing rather adequately now that he’s had a run of games, last season wasn’t exactly a success for him, meaning he might have wasted two years of his career due to a move he wasn’t ready for.
Now, two years later, we find out he was warned about leaving too soon, with Middlesbrough cult hero Joseph-Desiré Job revealing in an interview with Olympique et Lyonnais that he had a chat with the Tottenham flop prior to the move.
He said: “Before leaving the club you developed in, you need to be both patient and accomplished. I gave that advice to Clinton N’Jié before he left for Tottenham. He should have stayed an extra season to confirm and impose himself.
“When you’re a footballer, it’s very complicated to keep your head clear because there are sirens and attraction from other clubs that make you hesitate.”
Whether the decision to move to White Hart Lane really hindered the Cameroon international’s career remains to be seen, but few will disagree that an extra year in Lyon would have been beneficial.
He probably knows that now.
The same could be said about Georges-Kevin N’Koudou, to be fair.
