Etienne Capoue believes Watford fans are in a different league to their Tottenham counterparts

London Evening Standard



Etienne Capoue is feeling the love. “In France, they love football but not like this,” says Watford’s record £6.3million summer signing. “England loves football very, very, very much. England is very special for that.”



Love is something the 27-year-old France midfielder had given up on before moving to the Premier League newcomers after two deeply dissatisfying seasons in north London at Tottenham.



The contrast with this move and the one he made to White Hart Lane in the wake of Gareth Bale’s world record £86m move to Real Madrid in 2013 could not be greater.



With Spurs acting like millionaires after Bale’s exit — they spent £110m on seven players — Capoue was eager to cross the Channel “because England has the best League in the world”.



The then-Toulouse player had been linked to moves to Liverpool and Arsenal but says: “My agent worked for me to find Tottenham. [Franco] Baldini [Spurs’ director of football] came to France to meet me and he said, ‘Tottenham want to play at the top of the table’. It was a good challenge for me to try to get Tottenham into the Champions League position. But we didn’t. We were not good enough to be in the top four.”