Forward planning is generally seen as essential these days when it comes to transfers.
Liverpool’s recruitment strategy these days is admired across football with one of the key elements being their ability to be proactive rather than reactive in the market, sticking to a plan and being prepared to wait for the player they really want to become available rather than settling for a fall-back option.
It has proved a hugely effective methodology which has enabled Jurgen Klopp to develop a squad capable of regularly challenging for the top prizes at home and in Europe and has put the German coach in a much stronger position than many of his predecessors.
The consistency of this approach is arguably the factor which has elevated the club’s modern-day recruitment to its current level but is not entirely a recent phenomenon. Finding and securing the best players before your rivals snap them up has always been the goal for those with squad-building responsibilities but can come with its own pitfalls as was the case when the Reds broke their club transfer record to bring in French forward Djibril Cisse.
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The 23-year-old had been on Liverpool’s radar for some time, hardly a surprise given his compatriot Gerard Houllier was the man at the Anfield helm when he emerged as one of his country’s top striking talents. After joining his hometown club AC Arles at the age of eight, Cisse’s football education began in earnest after a brief spell with Nimes Olympique when he joined Auxerre at the age of 15 in 1996. Under the tutelage of renowned coach Guy Roux - the brains behind the club’s well-respected youth system - the youngster spend two years learning his trade in junior teams before graduating to the senior side and gradually establishing a reputation of one of the country’s finest young goal-getters by virtue of his pace, power and nerveless finishing.
He top-scored in Ligue 1 for the first time in 2001/02 with 22 goals from only 29 appearances to help Auxerre finish third and qualify for the Champions League, winning international recognition for the first time and a place in the French squad for the 2002 World Cup, following it up with another 14 goals the following season as Roux’s side won the Coupe de France.
Cisse’s exploits by this stage had brought him firmly to the attention of Gerard Houllier, a close friend of Roux’s, whose role as French technical director before his move to Anfield in 1998 just days after France’s World Cup win on home soil had fostered a strong interest in the youth development which was at the heart of their nation's triumph.
“Gérard and I speak all the time and it does not usually take him long to get round to the subject of Djibril”, revealed Roux - who had already experienced the power of Anfield in 1991 when his Auxerre side dramatically became the first opponents Liverpool successfully overturned a two-goal deficit against in Europe - in the summer of 2003 having persuaded Cisse to stay one more year in France.
"There is no denying Djibril's game would flourish in the English game. With his pace, he would be one of the most destructive strikers in the English game. His transfer has not been definitely settled. He was at Liverpool at the start of the week, that is true. He went there to have medical examinations and visit the facilities. Now we know the player wants to go there, he has negotiated and found an agreement with the club. Now, as the player has found what he wanted, we will negotiate with the English officials. He will be a first team-member and that is the most important thing when you sign for a great club. Moreover, his game will perfectly fit with Owen's one. I even feel he will cause absolute carnage in the English defences."
French defences would suffer again first as Cisse again top-scored in his final Ligue 1 season before moving to Merseyside, bagging 26 in 38 league games which was seven more than Marseille’s Didier Drogba who was also set to move to the Premier League with Chelsea. Cisse’s progress had attracted the attention of Real Madrid who reportedly tried to hijack his deal to join Liverpool but with a club record £14.5m fee having been long agreed, the Frenchman’s move was formally announced on 1st July 2004 despite the fact the man who had done so much to put the deal in place was no longer Liverpool manager.
Gerard Houllier’s reign had come to an end after a dispiriting couple of seasons which had seen his Liverpool team unable to build on the promise of the 2001 Treble and Premier League runners-up spot the following year but the departing manager spoke of what he felt his ‘parting gift’ would bring to the club as he bade farewell.
“I think Liverpool have signed a great player in Djibril Cisse”, Houllier said. “He's a fantastic striker and he's signed for five years so there is plenty of time for someone to work with him. He's been the best striker in France for the past three seasons and Rick and myself have spent a number of years making sure that this transfer happened. He's very, very quick, got a great shot and is a proven goalscorer."
For Cisse, whose rapid development had seen him compared to Thierry Henry, any unease he may have felt at not now being able to work under his compatriot and instead for a new manager - Spaniard Rafa Benitez - who had not been involved in his recruitment was off-set by the prospect of playing with the likes of Michael Owen and the step up to the Premier League.
"I liked Gerard Houllier very much but the change of manager never affected my decision to come”, he confirmed. “At a club like Liverpool, you have to work hard for success whoever is in charge. The manager is a very honest guy and I know whoever is in the best form will get the chance to play. Michael Owen is a well-known figure internationally. I think Milan (Baros), Florent (Sinama-Pongolle) and myself have to fight for the right to play with him.
“I’m not yet at Thierry Henry's level. I don't think you can compare us as players at the moment because it's an insult to Thierry Henry. People often try to compare me to him when he was starting off, but there are still light years between us. Maybe we've got speed in common, but he's more subtle. I'm a real brute compared to him. But I try and draw inspiration from him. The big clubs have been busy in the transfer market and it will make for an exciting Premiership season.”
Benitez welcomed Cisse’s arrival saying he felt he had the best strike force in the league and a welcome selection headache with Milan Baros - who had that summer top-scored for the Czech Republic at Euro 2004 - committing his future to the club despite reported interest from Real Madrid and Barcelona but the Spaniard's plans were thrown into jeopardy just days before his Liverpool regime began in earnest.
The futures of the Reds’ brightest young homegrown stars - Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen - had inevitably been the subject of much speculation over the course of the summer given Liverpool’s decline over the previous two seasons. With Chelsea now funded by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, Gerrard was strongly linked with a move to Stamford Bridge and would later admit he did consider his future when away with England at the Euros in Portugal that summer before deciding to give the new era at Anfield a chance despite the Londoners tabling a reported £20m bid.
Owen meanwhile was now only one year from the end of his Liverpool contract but had given various assurances he would sign an extension, declaring Liverpool was ‘in his blood’ and the delay had been caused by his agent being on sabbatical. But, after a summer of no developments on his new deal and increased speculation over his future, when the England forward was left on the bench for Benitez’s first competitive game in charge - a Champions League qualifier at Austrian side AK Graz - alarm bells rang loudly to suggest it was to avoid him being cup-tied and sure enough the day before the Reds’ league opener at Tottenham he joined Real Madrid for the relatively derisory sum of £8m plus Madrid squad player Antonio Nunez.
It was far from the start to a new season and era Benitez or shell-shocked Liverpool supporters were hoping for but Cisse provided a lift the following day when he poached the first goal of the new Premier League season in the lunchtime kick-off at White Hart Lane, giving his new side a half-time lead with a smart close-range volleyed finish after Jamie Carragher flicked on Steve Finnan’s cross from the right. Jermaine Defoe grabbed an equaliser after the break to earn the hosts a point but it was a dream start for Cisse who spoke afterwards of his gratitude to the recently-departed manager who had helped bring him to Liverpool and who was among the media observers of Benitez's Premier League bow.
“’I’ve always wanted to play in England and for Liverpool and to score the first goal of the season is a big achievement for me. Of course now that Michael Owen has left I know everybody at Liverpool wants me to score the goals he scored. All I can say is that I scored many goals in France and I think I can do it here too. First of all I do have to settle. That can only come game-by-game but it was great to score my first goal and that can only bring me confidence for the future. Once Steven Gerrard and Milan Baros get to know me better and the way I play, it will get better for all of us. It's not a problem. I am sure I will score goals for Liverpool. I had two shirts for the game. I gave one to Jacques Santini (Spurs’ new French manager) and I gave the other to Gerard Houllier, who was here working for French TV. Without Gerard I wouldn't be here at Liverpool. He had confidence in me and that was why I gave him my first Liverpool Premiership shirt.”
Cisse’s first win in a red shirt came the following weekend when Liverpool recovered from a goal down to beat Manchester City at Anfield but the Frenchman would have to wait until the following month for his second goal for his new club when he blasted home the opener in the Champions League group opener at home to the previous year’s runners-up AS Monaco. Understandably given the unsettling events of the summer, the first months of Benitez’s reign were marked with inconsistent results and performances with the Reds unable to win away from Anfield until mid October when an impressive fightback from two goals down earned a 4-2 victory at Fulham, suffering defeats at Bolton, Manchester United and Chelsea as well as at Olympiacos in the Champions League.
Form on home soil had been better with Cisse grabbing his third goal in Liverpool colours with a well-struck free-kick in a 3-0 win over Norwich City and another Anfield victory over Charlton in late October took Benitez’s men up to fifth in the table but a week later the Spaniard’s plans for an autumn push up the table were hit when his new French striker suffered a horrific injury which threw his season and potentially his entire career into doubt.
With the Reds drawing 1-1 against Blackburn at Ewood Park shortly before half time, a Cisse run down the right flank was halted by a seemingly innocuous challenge from Rovers defender Nils-Eric Johansson but it immediately became clear from the forward’s frantic signalling to the bench that he was in big trouble. Having caught his foot in the turf as he landed, the Frenchman endured a gruesome double leg with a fractured fibula and shattered tibia which he revealed years later was so serious it could have led to amputation had it not been treated effectively in time.
"When I was taken from the field, what the Liverpool staff did next was so important for my career, what they did in those first few moments was vital”, he recalled. "My bones were overlapping and I had no circulation in my foot. The doctor said to me ‘I’m going to have to reduce the fracture’. I didn’t know what he was talking about so I just said 'do what you’ve got to do'. He counted to three and pulled my leg. Everything went fine and I think some months after I said 'why did you do this?'. He said ‘your blood circulation at your foot was irrigated' and if it had been left as it was for 30 minutes to an hour, it would have had to be amputated. So thanks to the doc. If they had waited until I had got to the hospital I might have lost my leg, it was that serious."
A long period of recuperation lay ahead with Liverpool’s Head of Press Ian Cotton confirming afterwards he would undergo surgery the following day and was unlikely to play again that season. It was a devastating blow to the 23-year-old although he was given encouragement from team-mate Stephen Warnock who had suffered the same injury the year before.
“When I saw the pictures I felt sick, my leg came out at a similar angle”, the young Ormskirk-born defender admitted. “I had to have a steel rod put into my leg during the operation, so I know exactly what he's going through. The first thing you need to know in these situations is that the doctor thinks the operation has been a success and there are no complications. My girlfriend spoke to Djibril's girlfriend last night and they were all very happy with how the operation went. A lot of it is a psychological process. You've just got to be as positive as you can be until then and refuse to let it beat you. The fact I managed to come back has proved Djibril can also make a full recovery. If he looks at my situation, he'll know it's possible and I'll be around to give any advice if he needs it. It's just a very long process.”
Despite the knowledge he now faced a waiting game to see how well the bones had knitted before knowing he long he would be sidelined for, Cisse’s mental strength and gratitude came to the fore as he resolved to defy predictions his season was over and pay back the debt he felt owed to Liverpool’s medical staff.
“It was a bad injury but I think I have been lucky in many ways. If the bone had gone through my leg then my football was finished for me. I could not have come back after that. That's why I can say that I am very lucky. I know some people could not watch what happened to them again but I watched what happened to me at Blackburn straight after the operation. I am a strong person and I wanted to see what really happened. I never thought of ending my career, not for a tibia-fibula fracture, even if it is the worst injury of my career. It is not a stop, just a break and we will start again next year. The doctor visits me at home, Rafael Benitez and my team-mates came to see me in hospital and when I go to Melwood, they are all happy to see me. I am waiting for my chance because football is all I know."
Positivity paid off for the stricken Frenchman as remarkably he was able to feature again for Liverpool before his maiden season at Anfield was out - in a way he probably wouldn’t have been able to imagine even before his injury - and became available for selection just at the time Rafa Benitez needed it most. Although Cisse had helped get the Reds’ Champions League campaign off to a winning start back in September against Monaco, the Reds needed Steven Gerrard’s late strike against Olympiacos in the final group stage game to reach the knock-out stages where a comfortable win over Bayer Leverkusen set up a quarter-final showdown against Italian giants Juventus. The Reds’ inconsistent league form had continued into the new year and, despite a hard-fought Anfield win over Everton in late March, Benitez’s men still trailed their Merseyside neighbours in the race for fourth place and Champions League qualification, with it rapidly becoming clear Liverpool’s best chance of playing in the Europe’s premier competition the following season might be to win the current season’s version.
Few believed that would be likely ahead of the Reds’ first meeting with Juventus since the 1985 Heysel tragedy but Kopites began to dream when goals from Sami Hyypia and Luis Garcia gave Benitez’s men a healthy advantage after the opening half of the first leg. Fabio Cannavaro’s second half header injected an element of realism to such aspirations and, when it emerged both Steven Gerrard and Dietmar Hamann would be unavailable for the second leg in Turin the following week, it looked likely the Reds’ exhilarating European ride would end in Italy. But Benitez was handed a huge boost when Xabi Alonso - out since New Year’s Day after suffering a broken leg in a challenge with Chelsea’s Frank Lampard - was able to return to the starting line-up and Cisse was able to take a place on the substitute’s bench for the first time since his traumatic evening in Lancashire the previous October.
The Frenchman came on for Milan Baros with a quarter of an hour remaining and helped his team-mates see out the surprisingly comfortable goalless draw which took them into a last four showdown with Chelsea, an exuberant Cisse claiming afterwards Liverpool could now go all the way and win the trophy, saying “There is no reason we cannot win the competition now. I think other teams will be taking notice of Liverpool after our result against Juventus. I am really pleased for all my team-mates because they have taken us so far in the competition and they have done a great job. It is going to be hard against Chelsea, but having lost to them three times this season, now we really want to beat them. I am really looking forward to both games. People will make Chelsea favourites, but that's better for us."
Rafa Benitez had brought in Fernando Morientes in January to bolster his striking options but, with the Spanish striker being cup-tied due to Real Madrid’s insistence in not allowing him to be part of the Michael Owen transfer the previous summer as Liverpool had wanted and giving him a handful of minutes in Europe, Cisse was eased back into action gradually and only used from the bench in the following games, most notably in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final when, with the Reds hanging on to the lead given to them by Luis Garcia’s early ‘ghost goal’, the Frenchman played the final half-hour and twice came close to ending the excruciating tension by grabbing what would have been a killer second goal. It mattered not however when Slovenian referee Lubos Michael finally brought the excruciating six minutes of added time to a close and Cisse was able to celebrate on the pitch with his joyous team-mates as the realisation began to kick in that this most rollercoaster of Liverpool campaigns would end in Istanbul and the chance to win the club’s fifth European Cup.
The Frenchman marked his first start since October by scoring both goals in the Reds’ 2-1 win over Aston Villa on the final day of the Premier League season with a delighted Benitez declaring afterwards, "It was good to see Cisse scoring two goals. It means that I now have two options for the final. I can play one striker, Cisse or Baros, or play both of them. Djibril has worked really hard in training to get fit. The only problem was whether he could play 90 minutes, but he has now done that."
Although the Spaniard would spring a surprise with his line-up in the Turkish capital, dropping midfield lynchpin Didi Hamann to hand Harry Kewell a shock start, Milan Baros got the nod in the lone striker’s role with Cisse having to again settle for a place on the bench and at half time - with Liverpool three goals behind and staring down the barrel of global humiliation - some might have thought the Frenchman would almost have been relieved not to be associated with such a performance.
In fact the opposite was the case as Cisse was so desperate to get on the pitch to try and turn Liverpool’s fortunes round he almost tricked Benitez into bringing him off the bench at half-time after standing in his full kit next to the Reds boss as he was figuring out his substitutions in the chaotic dressing room scene, much to the amusement of Jamie Carragher.
“Benitez’s great strength was changing things in the game and not getting too emotional”, the defender recalled. “He made substitutions and changed the formation. He told Djimi Traore to go and get in the shower. His English wasn’t great so he just came in and said, ‘Traore, shower.’ But Steve Finnan was in with the physio and the physio said he couldn’t continue. And we’d already made one sub in the first half. So he asked Traore to get out the shower and he had to put a new kit on. Finnan is fuming because he thinks he can carry on. But in Rafa’s head he’s thinking, ‘If I leave Finnan on, I’ll have to bring him off after 20 minutes, and then all my subs are gone.’ When I think back to how he thought then, in a really high-pressure moment, that’s what his great strength was a manager.
“But for whatever reason, Djibril Cisse thought he was coming on. He was a f***ing spaceman, he was! He’s got his gear off and he’s in his kit even though he’s a sub. So Rafa, despite the fact I’m saying how cool and calm he was, has done his three-at-the-back, he’s put Hamann on, he’s looking after Kaka and, out of the corner of his eye, he must have seen Cisse. Before you know it, you’re thinking,’ 3-0 down against AC Milan but we’ve got Benitez, great manager’, and you look at the set-up and the tactic and you think, ‘You know what, we’ve got half a chance here.’ And then you count the men and we’ve got 12 on the f****** board! He had put Djibril on the right-wing.”
Having realised his error, Benitez reverted back to 11 players with Cisse having to return to the bench where, like the rest of the world, he watched in astonishment as three goals in six minutes just before the hour mark from Steven Gerrard, Vladimir Smicer and Xabi Alonso incredibly put Liverpool back on level terms before finally being introduced from the bench in place of Milan Baros five minutes from the end of normal time remaining with simple instructions from the manager to try and use his pace to win the game.
He got precious little opportunity to do that with the Italians by this stage having recovered from their defensive collapse in the second half to be the ones pushing for victory but Liverpool’s resolute rearguard action held out to force a penalty shoot-out with the confident Cisse wasting no time in telling Benitez he wanted to be one of those entrusted with taking a spot-kick.
“Yeah I asked him to take a pen”, he admitted. “For me it was no pressure, no stress. Just take your penalty, do what you do best – scoring goals – and try to help your team as much as you can. My story is a little bit unusual on the way to the final. Four months earlier I was on crutches trying to get fit for the next season, not to play Champions League football. I was so lucky and proud of everything I achieved to be there that night to help my team. It was unexpected for me to be there in front of the amazing Liverpool fans and they had missed two penalties before I even took mine so if I miss, okay I miss, but it’s nothing big.”
He calmly sent Brazilian goalkeeper Dida the wrong way from 12 yards to put the Reds two up in the shoot-out after misses from Serginho and Andrea Pirlo and, although John Arne Riise sent a few nerves jangling by missing the third kick, Vladimir Smicer’s successful conversion with his last kick of a ball in Liverpool colours and Jerzy Dudek’s save from Andrei Shevchenko completed the greatest fightback in European Cup history and ensured the trophy was returning back to Anfield for good.
“It was written”, said Cisse. “You can’t touch so many obstacles like this. It was our year. There were a lot of bigger teams with bigger names than us, but the thing is: we had a massive heart. For us, it was a battle every game. And we knew if we didn’t give 100, 250 per cent, the other team had more quality than us – they were better players than us. But the thing is, we had hunger and desire to win, and desire to fight for each other. Our heart was bigger and we showed it in the final. It was a dream come true for me. I was injured for a big part of the season. I managed to come back quite quickly and I managed to be a part of the team in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final. To take the pen and win the cup, you can’t beat that. Maybe to be world champion with France but I don’t think there’s a better thing than this.”
Despite Liverpool now being the reigning European champions, their participation in the following season’s Champions League was not initially guaranteed following the fifth place league finish behind Everton but Uefa eventually bowed to pressure and granted the Reds a place in the early qualifying rounds starting in July where Cisse made hay, scoring four times as Benitez’s men slogged through six games to reach the knock-out stages, also bagging a brace against CSKA Moscow in Monaco as the Super Cup was added to the Anfield trophy cabinet following a 3-1 extra time victory.
Benitez had brought in £7m forward Peter Crouch from Southampton to replace Milan Baros who left to join Aston Villa and, despite the England man’s difficulty in getting off the mark for his new club (which would not happen until his 19th match against Wigan Athletic in December), and Cisse’s early season goals in Europe, he still struggled to convince the Liverpool boss he was worthy of a regular run in the side.
Winning goals in successive starts against Blackburn (almost exactly a year after his horror injury at Ewood Park) and Anderlecht in the Champions League were a huge boost to the Frenchman who had expressed some concern in the media at his peripheral role in the team.
"Maybe this week is a new starting point for me and my Liverpool career”, he said after his winner in Belgium put the holders on the brink of early qualification for the knock-out stages. "I know that if I get a good run in the side I can score 20 goals for Liverpool this season. I feel a lot happier now. That's normal because you are always happier when you are playing and I also feel more relaxed about the situation. I know I need to have confidence in myself and I think I have shown that on the pitch. I am always confident about my ability to score goals - it is something I try to keep in my game all the time. I know that I am not always going to score a goal, but when I go out there on to the pitch, before the game I am always confident in my ability to do it. If I want to play every week, I know I have to be good and come up with it on the pitch, because we have the likes of Nando (Morientes), Peter (Crouch), loads of attacking alternatives. But when I am playing like I have been, I am obviously a lot happier now. I am a lot more relaxed about my game, and playing with a lot more freedom to it. That always comes when you are enjoying your football like I am at the moment."
The notoriously guarded Benitez’s comments about Cisse after the win over Anderlecht showed he still held some reservations however, on one hand praising him for scoring a great goal while also pointing out his misses and the need to keep proving himself given the competition for places up front.
“Djibril has done a great job for us and he scored a very, very good goal. He is scoring more goals for us and I'm pleased to see that. He scored tonight, but he also missed some chances. Fernando Morientes is not 100 per cent fit and we also have options with Peter Crouch and Harry Kewell. So, Cisse still has to keep proving himself."
The Frenchman kept his place for the next two matches but was back on the bench for the return game against Anderlecht, where he came off it to score in a 3-0 win, and would not make more than three successive starts for Liverpool again. One of them was in the Goodison derby just before new year when he sealed the Reds’ 3-1 victory with a clinical finish but when Benitez brought back legendary striker Robbie Fowler from Manchester City at the end of the following January’s transfer window, it was clear Cisse’s opportunities would continue to be limited.
With speculation over his future at the club mounting, he was at least handed the opportunity to go out on a high when Luis Garcia’s suspension after being sent off in a late season win at West Ham (which Cisse scored twice in) handed the Frenchman a starting shirt for the FA Cup final against West Ham United in Cardiff.
Like twelve months earlier, Benitez’s men found themselves in need of a fightback having fallen two goals behind to the Hammers after less than half an hour and it was Cisse who started it soon afterwards with his 19th goal of the season and arguably the most technically proficient of the 24 he scored across his two seasons at the club, watching a long threaded pass from Steven Gerrard over his shoulder and angling his body on the run to volley home and get Liverpool back into the match. Gerrard himself would score twice including a stunning 35-yard last minute equaliser to force extra time and, after the Reds again prevailed on penalties and Cisse left during the summer to join Marseille initially on loan, the skipper paid a glowing tribute to the Frenchman who he felt suffered more than his fair share of misfortune during his time at Anfield.
“Djibril had a rough year, playing out of position, and I know he didn't get on with Rafa too well, it was no surprise when he moved to Marseille. Djibril's a bit different. Some of his decisions to do with clothes, cars, tattoos and hair have me shaking my head in disbelief, but as a person Djibril's a great lad, and really caring. He'll do anything for you. I won't miss his clothes, but I will miss his bright personality. I hope he enjoys better luck at Marseille than he had at Liverpool. He will always be remembered at Anfield for that Cardiff belter.”
Cisse’s colourful persona, haircuts and lifestyle (he got married shortly after the Istanbul 2005 triumph and bought a country house in Cheshire which gave him and his new wife the titles of the titles of Lord and Lady of the Manor of Frodsham) as well as his goalscoring ability always attracted attention and it was no surprise when he returned to the Premier League to play for Sunderland on loan and later Queens Park Rangers, going on to represent 14 different clubs during his career in countries including Greece, Italy, Switzerland and Qatar..
He always insisted he never wanted to Liverpool and admitted harbouring some resentment to Rafa Benitez over the way he was treated while expressing pride at the part he played in two famous Reds’ triumphs.
“I grew up a big Marseille fan, so of course I was excited to join them, but I didn’t want to leave Liverpool. By now I had a family, my kids were settled and I had waited a long time to make it there. I still hold a grudge on the coach. I have still not swallowed it. Maybe I will never swallow it. Liverpool remains the place where I have suffered the most as a footballer, above all during the last season. I scored 19 goals and I never played! The coach and myself were not compatible.
"On a psychological level, it was very hard because I restrained myself a lot. Don't do or say anything. Frankly, I am proud of that and proud to be part of the Liverpool family. It’s a part of my career that I’m really proud of, it’s the team that gave me the biggest trophy that every footballer wants. I loved everything there - the players, the people, the fans, everything was great. I still miss it all.”
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