The weekend was reserved for international games and England smashed Germany 5:1. What are the repercussions of this victory in England?

I don't know, since I'm on holidays in the south (laughs). Since Thursday I've been in Montpellier and I have no idea what's going on in England. I presume they're happy but I don't know any more about it.

But shouldn't you have trained this morning?

Yes but as we'll have a break tomorrow the manager told me I could stay in Montpellier. Actually, at the moment I'm in Paris. I arrived at noon to take care of some papers and I'll return to Montpellier late afternoon. Training in Newcastle is supposed to resume on Wednesday morning.

Did you follow the match Chile-France?

It was my son's birthday. He turned one. I watched some but I didn't stay in front of my telly the whole 90 minutes. Anyway, from what little I've seen it wasn't all that great. It was cold and the pitch wasn't in a good condition. But it wasn't all that bad for the French team. They have to examine their performance and move on.

Last week you trained five days with Newcastle. What' difference is there between the English and the French training?

It's a bit like in France. You start the training with ball games, followed by a collective warm-up and then you work on your speed and you do jumps, with and without the ball. However, engagement-wise it's a bit harder. The players really are all there and they tackle you from all sides. It's like in a real match. There's an incredible commitment.

Were you surprised?

I hadn't expected that at all. But I can assure you that after the first tackle I quickly understood (laughs). I told a player that they didn't have to tackle in training but he immediately told me that this was the way things went here. You have to do it the 'correct' way but there's no problem, you can get in there alright.

And how does the match preparation happen?

When we had Sunderland here 8 days ago there was no respite. We trained the evening before the match and the next morning we met at 11:00 at the stadium to eat together. And when you get to the dressing room ...you don't believe it for a second. There's music in the background, some sing and everybody jokes around. Anyway, even if it's a bit surprising at first, it's very pleasant.