Etienne Capoue would typically meander around during Tottenham’s training sessions instead of engaging in much running, according to Jermain Defoe.
Capoue left Toulouse in the summer of 2013 for Spurs in a £9.4 million deal, where Andre Villas-Boas signed him to challenge Sandro for the number six spot.
Being regarded as one of the top young players in Ligue 1 at the time, the Frenchman came to Spurs with a high reputation.
Nevertheless, the midfield player was never able to secure a regular streak of starts at Tottenham and was ultimately traded for £6 million to Watford in 2015.
Before moving to Villarreal in 2021, the midfielder spent six seasons with the Hornets, playing 167 games for the team.
At Tottenham, Etienne Capoue played exclusively for himself.
Troy Deeney and Capoue shared a dressing room at Vicarage Road, and during their conversation, the former Watford captain acknowledged to Defoe that the 35-year-old was an exceptional athlete. Defoe was taken aback by this statement.
“When Capoue signed from Tottenham, they put him on that heart thing and the VO2 thing, he almost completed it, he was an animal,” Deeney stated on the Football Firsts Podcast.
Then Defoe exclaimed, “What? How come? “I never saw that, he must have been chilling because he didn’t run at Tottenham,” Deeney retorted, “If he wanted to, he could’ve been a top player.”
