He had had a successful spell coaching at Cannes, where he would be succeeded by a certain Steve Hampson, and was fluent in the language.
No doubt the fact was touched upon when he came to Thrum Hall in autumn 1995 to be interviewed for the post of assistant coach by Steve Simms.
This was in effect a new position necessitated by the switch to Super League and full-time professionalism.
Hitherto, even though the coach may have been full time himself, as people like Roger Millward and Malcolm Reilly had been, and as Simms himself was, the number two tended to be part-time, coach the Alliance side and help on first team match days.
The need to look after 30 players on a daily basis meant Simms couldn't operate on his own though.
It is now an established fact that Brian Noble was interviewed, accepted the post and then decided to stay on the backroom staff at Bradford.
His appointment would have suited Fax football manager David Hobbs, who was a big mate of "Nobby".
Existing assistant Tony Anderson was also keen on the role but instead became Academy coach and head of the club's schools/community initiatives.
He had to wait for the arrival of John Pendlebury to become assistant.
So Deakin got the job.
And all this springs to mind because Eric Anselme, one of his protégés, has just signed for Leeds.
"Deaks" was a strong advocate of bringing over young French talent and grooming it for Super League. No work permits or visas were needed for a start.
Anselme was the first to arrive, in the first week of 1997. And Deakin's contacts across the Channel had identified Laurent Frayssinous, Vincent Banet, Jerome Guisset and Ezzedine Attia to follow him.
Only the first two arrived however, because there was the small matter of Simms getting the sack in February after a home Challenge Cup defeat at the hands of Keighley.
For some perverse reason Deakin did not immediately follow his boss out of the gate and onto Thrum Hall Drive but rather was "suspended" pending the appointment of a new coach.
That basically meant he sat at home in Oldham and continued to draw a wage whilst Anderson and Hobbs ran the team on a caretaker basis.
It was only when Pendlebury got the top job in March and TA was confirmed as assistant that his services were dispensed with.
Deakin had obviously been in touch with his recruits in the interim period.
Anselme was already here and spoke passable English and was keen to stay.
Frayssinous, later to become a French international, founder member at Les Catalans and now on the coaching staff there, and hooker Vincent Banet were already en route.
But Guisset, later to play Super League with distinction with Wigan and Warrington, and Attia both wanted to renege on the deal. They had been coming because of Deakin and once he had left they didn't fancy it at all.
Anselme played in the Fax first team in 1997 and came back the following year. Frayssinous and Banet never got out of Mick Slicker's Alliance team.
The latter probably didn't have much chance, understudying Paul Rowley when Danny Seal was also around. He was last seen asking Stan Hardy for a shirt when he was playing for Limoux and Fax were there in the cup four years ago!