Jean-Guy Wallemme

When Jean-Guy was signed for £620,000 by Gordon Strachan in the summer of 1998 he was a star in France, especially in the northern mining town of Lens, captaining the town’s club to win the French League for the first time the previous season. Sadly he was a major disappointment at City and fans wondered why City signed him. They had Gary Breen and Richard Shaw in the best form of their lives, Paul Williams in reserve and Dion Dublin as an auxiliary central defender for emergencies.

He made his debut at Forest in the second game of the season as a substitute but alleged language difficulties between him and Shaw cost City the only goal of the game. He started the next game, a 0-0 home draw with West Ham. A young Rio Ferdinand was immaculate for the Hammers but according to Ian Chadband in the Times Wallemme wasn’t far behind and ‘looked a quality buy on his full debut’, whilst Andy Turner made him man of the match in the Evening Telegraph.

Two tough games at Anfield and Old Trafford followed and although he was lucky not to be sent off in the first game he was outstanding in the 0-2 defeat at United. A solid performance against Southend in a 1-0 League Cup win before what appears to be Wallemme’s Waterloo, a 1-5 home defeat to Newcastle. From a fan’s viewpoint he was no worse than anyone in the City side but probably the fact that Alan Shearer, the man he was marking scored twice, made him one of the scapegoats. Shearer muscled him off to score his first and then later the Frenchman slid in to dispossess Shearer only to see the loose ball whipped upfield for Stephen Glass to score number four.

Wallemme was axed for the next league game at Charlton and never appeared for the first team again. Less than a week later he told French football magazine L’Equippe that however happy he was playing at Coventry he was concerned for his eight-year old son’s schooling and Bryan Richardson admitted that the Frenchman and his family were having a tough time. It seems that from that point on he was just not part of Strachan’s plans.

By the end of October it was a matter of when he moved back to France rather than if and with his family back in France his mind was not on football. In December he signed for French club Sochaux with City recouping most of the fee.

Unfortunately Sochaux were relegated that season and Jean Guy was on the move again, to St Etienne, newly promoted to the First Division after a period in the doldrums. By 2001 he was managing the Verts, as St Etienne are known, but they too were relegated in his first season as manager and he returned to Lens, as a player and helped them to runners-up position in the league.

Since retiring he has managed at Rouen, SK Ronse in the Belgian second division, US Royenne, a French amateur side and FC Paris.