Transfer Grades: Bale, Ozil, Fellaini, Lamela and Sakho

Mamadou Sakho

Mamadou Sakho – PSG to Liverpool (£15.5m) What’s the deal? Liverpool get their ‘marquee signing’ for the summer by securing the services of Sakho who can play centre back or left back, presumably as Daniel Agger’s long term partner. Is the price right? It is a lot of money, but with PSG not desperate to sell and considering Sakho’s pedigree, captain of PSG at 19 years of age and regular for the French national team, it’s about right. Why sign him? Although Kolo Toure was doing a decent job before injury, he was never brought in as the long term solution. Liverpool have been linked to Sakho a few times this summer and with Toure going down, wanted to capitilise on their good start to the season by adding Sakho. He’s an elegant, ball playing defender but Rodgers will have to coach out his proneness to daft errors. If he can eliminate them from his game he can be an elite player. Why sell him? He bounced around between left back and centre back, never really first choice in either spot over the last couple of years. Some high profile errors cost him the captaincy and untouchable status and with Marquinhos and Digne added this summer, his first team opportunities would have been limited. Mind you, the fans weren’t happy to see him leave. Will it work? It can do, because he has top notch talent. The question mark is really over whether he can stop the mad moments, perhaps caused by loss of concentration, and truly excel. Rodgers is a good coaching manager though so will have ideas on how to improve this in Sakho. Liverpool Grade: B+ Fills a big need and comes with pedigree. Needs coaching and patience but Liverpool can offer him that. PSG Grade: B- Have they given up on him too quickly? What if Marquinhos struggles initially, will they regret it? The fans aren’t happy which is usually a good barometer.