West Ham linked with French Ligue 1 sensation - and it’s not Dimitri Payet!

A lot of column inches have been dedicated to Dimitri Payet recently and while the negotiations have finally been concluded, they have been described as being akin to ‘pulling teeth’.

Recent reports however are linking us with another, lesser known player from the French League 1 - Claudio Beauvue, but who is he?

Like Dimitri Payet, he is not very tall at 5’7” and was a revelation in League 1 last year. At 27, he is a year younger but has not consistently hit the heights that Payet has, and hence the difference in prices being spoken of.

The two players offer different things though; while Payet is a creator, who can contribute some goals, Beauvue is a goalscorer who can contribute some assists. In the League, Payet scored seven goals and provided 16 decisive passes; Beauvue scored 17 goals and made three decisive passes.

Beauvue left his native Guadeloupe at the young age of 14 and joined up with USJA Carquefou, before signing up with the Nantes academy a year later. He actually played in the Nantes team together with Payet over the 2005-2006 season, but while Payet played two games and scored one goal, Beauvue didn’t get a game; indeed, his career has been slower to take off.

He moved from Nantes to Troyes and made his first professional debut at the age of 19 in Ligue 2. He went on to make 65 appearances, over three years for the second division team, scoring six goals. From Troyes, he moved on to another second division team, Châteauroux, where he scored 16 goals in 18 months, earning him a loan up to the French first division with SC Bastia.

It was during this loan period that he was spotted by Guingamp, his current team, and was signed up to the first division team for a mere €300 000 (around £215 000). The previous president of Châteauroux, the team that sold him commented in France Football (18/02/2015) that ‘a great error was committed by Châtearoux in this transfer’ as no sell-on clause was inserted in the contract.

In 2013-2014, his first full season in Ligue 1, Guingamp laid the foundations for both him and the team to great success the following year. Beauvue managed five goals in 36 league matches and Chateauroux won the domestic cup, hence qualifying for the Europa League.

Last season therefore, Guingamp were actively fighting on three fronts: the league, the cup and the Europe League (much as West Ham hope to be next season!) They managed to get to the semi-final of the cup and the quarter finals of the Europa League, before getting knocked out by Dynamo Kiev, with an ex-Hammer, Rebrov, in charge.

Beauvue chalked up an impressive 27 goals in all competitions (five goals in the Europa League, five in the Cup and 17 in the league) and in doing so has very much put himself in a position to take a step up this summer.

LeMonde journalist, Yann Bouchez, stated in an article published on 19 February that the success of the Brittany club this past season was undeniably down to the “revelation” of Claudio Beauvue, ironically, for his size, dubbed “Air Beauvue” in reference to the basketball player Michael Jordan (thanks to his incredible spring, he scored over a third of his league goals last season with his head).

At the beginning of the year the French sport’s paper l’Equipe, even started suggesting that Beauveau could be considered for the French national team. However, with established players such as Benzema, Giroud, Gignac, Remy, and Lacazette, the French national team has an abundance of talent in this position. If his flexibility were to be exploited, and he were to be employed in a wide position, he would still be up against the likes of Griezmann, Ribery and Valbuena though.



Indeed, his flexibility might be interesting for West Ham’s new purported fluid system next season. Guingamp manager, Jocelyn Gourvennec, used Beauvue in no less than five different position over the course of the season: as a second striker, alone up top, attacking left and right midfield in a 4-3-3 or even out wide in a 4-4-2.

His manager has said of the player that he has made a lot of progress this last season because he listens, works hard and is very sensible off the pitch. The player says of himself that he ‘can still progress, like a Didier Drogba, that has arrived late to the scene’.

He is contracted to Guingamp until June 2017, but offers have started being whispered about in the press. Lyon and Marseille have both been linked with the player, with figures of around €5m (£3.5m) being talked of. Encouragingly for West Ham, if indeed we are interested in him, the player has expressed a preference to play in the Premier League.

On Guingamp’s supporters’ forum (forum.eag.fr), while some have derided such a low transfer fee, others have justified it by the fact that last season was his best and so his consistency has not yet been proven.

Others mention the fact that he would ‘surely score many more goals playing for a better team, with more possession of the ball,’ and this is where the questions lie surrounding Claudio Beauvue; is he a one season wonder or is this just the beginning?

It is the Daves’ that will need to sit down and take this decision with Bilic, but the potential certainly seems to be there, and he seems to be available at an attractive price, and willing to join the Premier League. If he does, let us hope that he’ll be more of a Sakho than a Maiga. Incidentally, his hero is Thierry Henry!

Finally, here's the compulsory YouTube "best of": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzwSPQ1DkKw

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