West Brom new boy Gabriel Tamas recalls how his Euro battle with Everton's Duncan Ferguson left him with a black eye

Jan 24 2010 by Andy Walker, Sunday Mercury

“It was an interesting game, they had a big striker – Ferguson – he was very strong and he left me with a black eye. That game stands out because of that.

“The league over here is good, I like it. It’s hard football and I think that suits me.

“I think the English league is the hardest physically. In France it’s almost the same but I think they want to copy English football.”

Before sealing his loan move to The Hawthorns from French club Auxerre, Tamas did his homework on both the Championship and the Premier League by regularly tuning in to matches on TV.

The centre-back admits that those hours in front of the box helped get him mentally prepared for the rough and tumble of the Championship.

And, as well as the memory of coming up against the burly frame of Ferguson, Tamas admits that he also had plenty of practice on the physical side while playing for Romania.

The ex-Celta Vigo and Galatasary man believes that battling against the goal-hunting giants of Eastern Europe helped get him ready for whatever the likes of Sheffield United and Derby County could throw at him.

“I played against (Jan) Koller for my national team when we were playing against the Czech Republic and we won 2-0,” said Tamas. “Koller was a strong man, a very big man and I think that there are similar players in England but with a little bit more quality.

“(Nikola) Zigic was another one when we were playing against Serbia, I faced him and he was another one who is strong, tall, like in England.

“Those games got me ready for English football. In Spain they also have a lot of tall and strong players so I’m used to that side of football and it’s a challenge that I enjoy.”

Despite being at Albion for less then a month, Tamas has quickly settled into his new life in the West Midlands and is even become a part of the typical dressing room banter, having been dubbed ‘Dracula’, due to his Romanian accent, by team-mate Roman Bednar.

Being able to quickly feel at home in England has come as a major relief to Tamas who admits that he struggled to settle in France with Auxerre, hence why he returned to Dinamo Bucharest for a second loan spell.

“In France, I liked the football but maybe I didn’t like the life. If you don’t like the life, or football, or something’s not working then it is not good for you to stay there,” he said.

“When I come here, it feels like I’ve been playing here all my life. If everything is good in your life, then you give 100 per cent on the football pitch.

“Maybe in France I felt that something was wrong, I don’t know what it was. I was playing almost every game, only the game when I was suspended, but I don’t know why it didn’t work out.

“Now when I finish the training and go home, it feels like home. In France when I went home I was missing something.”