Jean-Ricner Bellegarde has had a fairly indifferent start to life at Wolves after joining from Strasbourg on transfer deadline day – and the midfielder has now made an honest admission about Premier League football.
Bellegarde, 25, completed a £13 million move to Molineux at the eleventh hour in the last summer window, with Molineux officials having to fly out to France to conduct a medical.
The scenes were reminiscent of when the club signed Boubacar Traore the year before from Metz.
Bellegarde has made 23 appearances for Wolves so far this term, but has been unavailable for selection for the past month or so due to injury. This has caused him to miss Wolves’ last eight matches.
It has been a bit of a frustrating period for the Frenchman because prior to his spell on the sidelines, Bellegarde had struggled for consistency at Molineux. The attacking midfielder has managed just two goals and one assist so far, and hasn’t quite convinced the masses yet.
But Bellegarde has been speaking about his first season at Wolves, and made some comments that one of his teammates will certainly sympathise with…
Wolves star Jean-Ricner Bellegarde admits the Premier League is ‘too fast’
Bellegarde has given an interview to the club about his first term at Molineux.
He talks about his move and how ‘crazy’ it was for him to pack up his whole life and just move countries at such short notice.
But Bellegarde is very happy at Molineux, and is hoping for a more productive campaign next term.
The player touches on the difference between Ligue 1 and the Premier League, and there is no doubt in his mind that the English game is a heck of a lot quicker.
He admitted: “The football is unbelievable in England. You can’t be surprised, compared to in France, I like it. England is… the football is too fast! It’s too fast. In France it’s more tactical, it’s not the same. Here it’s too fast, (but) it’s good.”
“When you come to England, you play more football here.”
Sarabia has made similar comments
It’s interesting to hear Bellegarde talk about the Premier League in comparison to Ligue 1 and how the pace is much faster.
A lot of players do make that observation when they come to the league from overseas, including Wolves’ very own Pablo Sarabia. The Spaniard signed for Wolves in January 2023, and has been open about the difficulties of adapting.
He said a few months after joining: “There’s always something different happening and there have been all kinds of situations going in these 10, 11 games I’ve played so I’m adapting, getting used to it and working a lot to adapt the best way I can because it is not easy. It’s very physical with a lot of pace, so I was not used to these kinds of games and situations.”
And only around a month ago, Sarabia admitted that ‘the pace of the Premier League is on another level to the other leagues’.
It’s been a fairly average start for Bellegarde. But patience is required over him – there is a player there, and he has the athleticism and technical ability that could help him thrive in a Gary O’Neil team.
The manager seemingly just hasn’t found the best place for him yet, and the injuries also haven’t helped his cause.