We reach "C" in our A-Z we tried to forget but could not and c'est arrive at a Frenchman who's name began with "C".

No, not that one. As much as it rankles us, we cannot exactly call "Le Grande Merde" himself a load of rubbish. Following Wilko's botched attempt to bring Denis Irwin back to ER, which saw Cantona jettisoned off to pastures new, the Square Ball did a cartoon strip entitled "Ernie Carhorsa" - if only it had come true.

In LS11, our relationship with French footballers is a bit like the British's own feelings towards our not so dear neighbours from across the Channel. Basically you can count the number of Froggies on one hand who are national institutions, the late Sasha Distel for example or what about Antoine De Caunes from Eurotrash? (I'm not even sure he is French, he might be Belgian!). At Leeds, we have cursed the likes of Didier Domi, Pierre Laurant but loved (albeit briefly) Cantona and Olivier Dacourt was one of our finest midfielders during the O'Leary era....however Cyril Chapuis is very much in the latter camp of our compulsory mistrust of things gallic, like stinky cheeses, odd shaped automobiles and of course escargot.

Chapuis was signed on a season long-loan from Marseille by Peter Reid in September 2003. As usual, the club spin-doctors went into hyper overdrive making Alistar Campbell look like a church mouse. Despite just four goals in 42 games at the Stade Velodrome Chapuis had (apparently) been desired in England for some time, with Newcastle and Portsmouth reportedly sniffing around him with the Geordies reportedly ready to offer £6m for his services - but Leeds had stolen a march and could we see the second coming of a brooding, dark, Norman-featured maverick to raise our spirits and lift us out the dole-drums?

Chapuis's first contribution of note for Leeds was being sent down to Cambridge to play in John Taylor's testimonial and he promptly bagged a hat-trick - which sent expectations even higher. I first saw him in the flesh when he came on as sub during our League Cup clash with Manchester United at ER, he was denied a stonewall penalty as we lost 2-1 in the most controversial of circumstances.

The record books shows that his only other contributions to the white cause was another sub appearance against Swindon in the preceeding League Cup round and in November, he started against Bolton in what ended as a depressing 2-0 defeat which left Leeds rooted to the bottom of the Premiership and I think this was the game which hit home that relegation was very much a reality. By now, Eddie Gray had taken over the reigns from the hapless Reid.

BY January 2004, Gray had virtually dispensed with Reid's French connection and Chapuis was a casualty. Following negotiations with his parent club Marseille, Chapuis moved on to Strasbourg with a parting shot at Gray.

He told Skysports "I found myself with Sakho, Olembe and Domi in the reserve team. Zoumana Camara joined us from time to time.

"The new coach Eddie Gray clearly stated he was not going to rely on players from France. Why? I don't know."

"Why I don't know?"...."I don't know why I love you?" AW Forget it!!!

Chapuis found the net once in nine starts for Strasbourg, his next move was to the mighty Ajjacio (on loan) for the entire 2004/05 season. In the summer of 2005, Marseille amazingly did not renew his contrsact so he was without a club and nearly returned to Britain when offered a trial with Rangers, but it turned out to be another false dawn and he returned back to France to play with Greenoble and then Metz.

Photo: Action Images

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