0:26 Watford manager Nigel Pearson says Friday’s match against West Ham is one in which both sides have ‘an awful lot to gain’, as the clubs battle to avoid relegation from the Premier League
“I like to concentrate on myself, not others. It’s important for me to have this mentality, to have this positive mentality to go into the next game.
“My relationship with Sadio is really important to me. He’s given me a lot of advice, I try to apply it on the pitch, sometimes he calls me after the game and tells me what I’ve done wrong, and it’s very important support for me. He’s a big man, he doesn’t do it only with me but a lot of people too, and it’s why our relationship is really important.
“When I first came to this country he said ‘welcome to England’, and told me to do my job in the same way I know, that it’s important to stay as what you are.”
One thing Mane may have struggled to advise his friend on is his frustration in sitting on the sidelines in the early days of his Watford career. At the same age, he was already firing in goals left, right and centre for Red Bull Salzburg, while Sarr, who came straight into the season after a run to the African Cup of Nations final, was given only 167 minutes to impress across the first three months of this season.
“That was the thing which was most difficult for me arriving in England, staying on the bench at first,” he says. “You have the language barrier too, when you arrive, to understand things, even with the [French-speaking] players we have here like Etienne Capoue, and Christian Kabasele.
“But the most important thing is to be on the pitch in the first months, which was difficult because I was staying on the bench so much. Since December I have really enjoyed playing, and I hope I can increase the level of the team in future.”
To celebrate his move to the Premier League, the “best league in the world” in Sarr’s eyes, he bought his father, a former professional turned farmer, a flock of sheep last August. “I don’t know what kind of sheep they are but it’s the right breed – I wanted to make sure he had the best quality sheep,” he said at the time.
They have now been joined by a number of lambs in the early months of this year, perhaps a fitting analogy for Sarr’s blossoming Watford career, and one he never saw going any differently.
This is, after all, a man who turned down Barcelona in 2017 to join Rennes, then a mid-table Ligue 1 club, because he wanted to play. He still has ambitions to reach the top and has called his move to Watford a “window”, which judging by his debut Premier League season may prove very accurate.
But for now, it’s all eyes the prize – West Ham, and Premier League survival. “I have no regrets,” he says. “All of my focus is on finishing the job and keeping us in the Premier League.”
Sourse: skysports.com
