Jordan Zemura
The Burkina Faso international joined from French side Lorient last month and made an instant impact with an assist in a 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest on his debut. Ouattara again played the full 90 minutes on Saturday, during the 1-0 loss at Brighton. Discussing his early impressions of the 20-year-old,
Jordan Zemura: “Him no English, me no French. I think Siriki (Dembele) was helping him out quite well and Noa (Boutin), the young lad. But he’s a great lad. He’s only 20, he’s come over here and just been smashing it. When he first came in, we could see the talent that he had and the qualities that he possessed. There’s going to be a lot to be excited about for the fans, having him for the next couple of years. It was good to see him get an assist (against Forest).”
Asked how much English Ouattara understands,
Jordan Zemura added: “All he knows is ‘back post’ and then he says ‘back post’. When we scored (against Forest), I don’t know what he said to me but he said something in French. ‘Bon’ something, I don’t know what he said to me, but he seemed happy!”
Discussing the lift a new arrival such as Ouattara can bring to the squad,
Jordan Zemura said: “Definitely. Even when he came in to training, you could just see, oh this is different. We’ve got David Brooks on his way back, Marcus Tavernier on his way back, Dom (Solanke) on his way back. Those players, that gives you a big buzz because you know the qualities that they have and you just think to yourself, once we get everyone back in and we’re all competing in training, it’s going to be something to really look forward to. It’s a good camp.”
Former Cherries defender Mathieu Baudry has been back with the club in the past couple of weeks, the Frenchman helping Ouattara and fellow French speaker Hamed Traore settle in England.
