Show must go on for Dembele
By Matt Law Football News Correspondent
Pochettino has now waved goodbye to Dembele (Getty)
Mousa Dembele’s departure caused sadness among a large section of Tottenham Hotspur supporters last week and the Belgian will also be sorely missed by his old team-mates and staff at the club’s Enfield training centre.
Dembele was one of the most popular players at Tottenham and it was virtually impossible to find anyone with a bad word to say about the man once hailed a “genius” by manager Mauricio Pochettino.
His popularity extended to the Spurs press office, even though Dembele was one of the club’s more reluctant interviewees.
Not bothered about putting himself in the limelight or talking up the praise bestowed on him from Pochettino or pundits, Dembele would try every trick in the book to either avoid giving an interview or ending it as soon as possible.
When asked to take part in some extra filming at one of the annual broadcaster days, Dembele politely replied: “I would love to, but I really need to go and pick up my kids from school.”
But, much to the amusement of everybody present, Dembele quickly had to put his hands up and admit to his lie when it was pointed out that it was late July and the schools had broken up.
Dembele’s other trick would be to agree to any question his interviewer asked in an attempt to complete his media duties as quickly as possible. Press officers would smirk as the 31-year-old gave reporters exactly what they wanted and made an early exit home.
One subject Dembele would open up on, however, was his love of musicals, as this particular reporter found out during an interview in 2013 and, in Guangzhou R&F, he has picked a good club to maintain that particular interest.
Not getting very far asking Dembele about his own game or the merits of Tottenham’s latest signing of the time, Lewis Holtby, I decided to instead ask whether he had any hobbies outside football.
Twenty minutes later, Dembele had finished talking about his love of London’s West End and, in particular, the Jersey Boys musical which he had seen three times at that point.
Fortunately for Dembele, a quick internet search confirmed that Guangzhou, where he has moved, does have an active musical scene with Cats, Wicked and Kinky Boots recently visiting the city north-west of Hong Kong.
