Jermain Defoe has revealed that Etienne Capoue did not do much running at Tottenham and would usually stroll around during training.
Capoue joined Spurs in a £9.4m deal from Toulouse in the summer of 2013, with Andre Villas-Boas signing him to compete with Sandro for the number six spot.
The Frenchman was quite highly rated when he arrived at Spurs, having been considered one of the best young talents in Ligue 1 at the time.
However, the midfielder never quite managed to get a consistent run of starts at Tottenham and was eventually sold to Watford for £6m in 2015.
The midfielder played 167 times for the Hornets during his six seasons at the club before joining Villarreal in 2021.
Etienne Capoue played within himself at Tottenham
Capoue shared the dressing room with Troy Deeney at Vicarage Road and the former Watford captain admitted in his conversation with Defoe that the 35-year-old was an outstanding athlete, a claim that the former Tottenham striker was quite surprised by.
Deeney said on Football Firsts Podcast: “When Capoue signed from Tottenham, they put him on that heart thing and the VO2 thing, he almost completed it, he was an animal.”
Defoe then said: “What? What? He didn’t run at Tottenham, he had the handbrake on, he must’ve been chilling because I never saw that”, to which Deeney responded: “If he wanted to, he could’ve been a top player.”
Spurs Web Opinion
There is no doubt that Capoue was a fantastic athlete but he perhaps lacked the drive needed to maximise his talent. It also appeared like he lost confidence and the motivation to train hard once he started struggling to get into Tottenham’s starting eleven.
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