Bassong wanted to work with Hughton

22 August 2012 16:17

New Norwich defender Sebastien Bassong has revealed the chance to link up with manager Chris Hughton played a big part in his decision to leave Tottenham for Carrow Road.

The 26-year-old Cameroon international has completed a move to the Canaries after spending the second half of last season on loan at Wolves.

"Chris was the first coach in England to give me a training session when I came here from Metz so I have known him for a long time," Bassong told talkSPORT.

"To be honest that made the difference, when you get a chance to work with someone you know really well...it helped me a lot."

Bassong first moved to the Barclays Premier League in 2008 when he was signed by Hughton at Newcastle and the former France Under-21 defender was pleased to seal a deal to play under the new Norwich boss.

Bassong could not help Wolves avoid relegation last season but returned to White Hart Lane with a chance to break back into the side under new Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas.

However, despite featuring on a regular basis throughout pre-season, Bassong admitted both he and the former Chelsea manager came to the decision his future lay away from the club.

He said: "It has been quite a confusing situation for me, I came back from loan and we had a new manager so I wanted to prove myself.

"When you get a new manager everyone starts from zero. I was talking with AVB (Villas-Boas) a couple of times and we reached an agreement that it would be better for me to leave.

"He is the kind of manager who wanted to give everyone the chance and see everyone playing, we had too many centre-backs at Spurs. He was really fair to me and told me I was playing well but in football there are many facts that count to make the team."

Source: PA