Monthly Archives: August 2013

Joining ‘legendary’ Liverpool is a dream – Cissokho

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The French left-back has moved from Valencia on a season-long loan to provide competition for Jose Enrique and hopes to play in as many games as possible at Anfield

Aly Cissokho has expressed his delight at joining Liverpool, which he describes as “a legendary club”.

The Reds have secured the Frenchman on a season-long loan from Valencia and, despite having played for some of Europe’s top clubs already in his career, the left-back describes the move as a “dream”.

“I feel extremely proud to be here and I’m proud of all the hard work I’ve put in so far throughout my career,” Cissokho told the club’s official website.

“I’ve always dreamt of one day signing for a really legendary club. I’ve been lucky enough to play for a few top sides and so to now get the chance to play for a club like Liverpool, it’s just fantastic.

“I’ve always said, along with a lot of other French players, that I really love the English league and, although I’ve been fortunate enough to have played at some big clubs, in the back of my mind, I’ve always wanted to play in England.

“It’s really pleasing when a club like Liverpool shows interest in you and, when that interest becomes more serious, you really can’t wait for the move to go through. Now that the transfer has been completed, I’m really happy.

“I hope to feature in as many games as possible. I know it’s going to be quite tough and I need to get to work as soon as possible as pre-season is over and we are into the league programme.”

Cissokho played for Olympique Lyonnais when they beat Liverpool 2-1 back in 2009 and says that he has good memories of Anfield as a result.

“I was fortunate enough to play at Anfield and it was a really special occasion for me,” the defender enthused. “I have some great memories of that night. Although it was us that grabbed the win, it still remains a good memory.

Transfer Talk: Arsenal in crisis as Tottenham-bound Willian leads Anzhi firesale

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Nat Coombs, Greg Stobart and Peter Staunton discuss the major talking points from the summer market, with Samuel Eto’o also among those likely to secure an exit from Russia

Is there a greater juxtaposition in the upper echelon of European football at present than in north London?

Arsenal, soured by a shock 3-1 opening day home defeat to Aston Villa, are STILL yet to take serious inroads in the transfer market, while rivals Tottenham are set to break their transfer record for the third time this summer! Their focus, Willian, is the latest name in the exodus from Russian outfit Anzhi Makhachkala.

Anzhi, of course, are facing a serious period of transition. Owner Suleiman Kerimov, having given up on his ideology of forging a team of globetrotting all-stars, is in the process of carving $100 million (£63.8m) off the annual budget. Samuel Eto’o, a Champions League winner with Inter and Barcelona, is set to follow Willian before the window closes.

Nat Coombs returns alongside Goal correspondent Greg Stobart and international football writer Peter Staunton.

Remember, to pose a question to next week’s panel, leave your comment below or Tweet us by using the hashtag #askgoal.

Liverpool make low-risk, high-potential Cissokho swoop

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The 25-year-old Frenchman arrives at Anfield looking to get his career back on track following testing spells with Lyon and Valencia, but should be well suited to English football

PROFILE
By James Eastham

Liverpool loan signing Aly Cissokho always seemed likely to end up in England. He’s a tall, fast and athletic full-back whose style is arguably better suited to the Premier League than La Liga.

He’s also a player whose career path is extremely unusual. When you see him on the pitch he may appear to be another powerful product of France’s famed youth systems, but he was actually unknown in his home country when he moved to Vitoria Setubal in Portugal in 2008. At the time he was just 20 years old and had made only 22 league appearances in the French second division for Gueugnon, the unfashionable club where he had come through the ranks.

In Portugal he caught the eye of Porto, who bought him six months after his arrival in the country. At Porto he rose to prominence thanks to good performances in domestic competition and the Champions League. This led to a €15 million move to Lyon just 12 months after he had left France for a fraction of that price – but not before AC Milan had rejected the chance to sign him based, they said, on his poor dental health, believing poor teeth can lead to muscular problems later in his career. At Lyon we saw the good and bad of Cissokho’s game. His pace and athleticism enabled him to get up and down the left flank well. His strength meant he could stand up to most opponents.

There was something almost endearing about his all-action style – as though he couldn’t quite believe he’d reached the big time after such an inauspicious start, and was determined to make the most of it. But he could be erratic. At times he would be caught too far forward. Sometimes he appeared to lose his bearings in relation to either his direct opponent or fellow defenders. And while those driving forward runs down the left wing were impressive, there were questions about the quality of service he provided once he got into the final third. In three seasons at Lyon, he scored just once and provided five assists. During the same period, Bordeaux’s Benoit Tremoulinas, another of Ligue 1’s best left-backs, scored four times and provided 13 assists.

The general feeling was Lyon had overpaid for a player that was a non-international when he joined and has won only one France cap since. This view was reinforced when Lyon had to sell him at a €10m (£8.5m) loss to Valencia last summer. In Spain Cissokho made 25 league appearances and scored two goals, but the move didn’t entirely work out as planned. He struggled to develop into one of the team’s key players, and perhaps suffered in comparison to Jordi Alba, who had just left for Barcelona.

So Cissokho is no world-beater – and yet the move to Liverpool makes sense on several levels. The Reds have signed a player with the physical and athletic capacity to adapt to the Premier League. He will be hungry after a difficult year in Spain. He won’t have entirely given up hope of an international recall and will relish the opportunity to measure himself directly against France international left-backs Patrice Evra and Gael Clichy a year before the World Cup in Brazil. He will also offer serious competition to Jose Enrique; at 25 and as a relatively late bloomer he can still improve. And he’s cheap – he arrives on a one-year loan so can be moved on at relatively little loss at the end of the season if things don’t work out.

With only two weeks to go before the transfer window closes and Liverpool desperately needing extra manpower at left-back, signing Cissokho looks like a decent piece of business.