It’s hard enough to make it as a professional footballer as it is. But when you have made it and looking to develop your career does a new label really help you? I don’t think so. Even more so, when the label placed on you is heralding you as a successor to one of the best footballers this planet has ever seen. Talk about pressure. The pressure applied to Bruno Cheyrou by Gerard Houllier was unreal to say the least. The New Zinedine Zidane!! Not much pressure there was there.
The New Zinedine Zidane
Not living up to the hype, it was hardly surprising that Bruno Cheyrou – The New Zinedine Zidane – didn’t really make it at Liverpool. So, it was no surprise that we sold Cheyrou to Rennes on this day 29th June 2006.
Cheyrou signed for Liverpool with good credentials, but struggled to make an impression at Liverpool. As well as being burdened by the ridiculous comparison, Cheyrou seemed a bit lost in English Premiership football.
Even though Cheyrou struggled in his first season, Gerard Houllier was still banging the Cheyrou drum: “For me, Bruno has all the assets to reach the level that separates a good player from a great player. He has a great individual technique, he passes the ball well, he has an excellent touch of the ball and the essential tactical sense,” said Houllier. “Like other French players before him, he probably needs a little more time. Remember the first season at Arsenal? Everyone laughed at Robert Pires.”
Alas, not even that pep talk seemed to do it.
Cheyrou Highlights
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for Cheyrou though. He did have a couple of Liverpool highlights along the way. His excellent goal secured Liverpool’s first win in the Premiership at Stamford Bridge on 7 January 2004 and two goals against Newcastle in the FA Cup later that month got him voted the best player of the fourth round.
This short cameo short of announced his arrival at Anfield. Cheyrou was happy to be finally part of the Liverpool team. As he said at the time:
“It meant a lot to me when Steven Gerrard came up to me after the game and hugged me,” said Cheyrou. “This season, I felt I still had to earn the respect of my teammates here. It’s a while since my name has been heard in the crowd. I was not the worst player in the world a week ago, and I’m not the best player in the world now.”
These halcyon days were short lived however. Unfortunately for Cheyrou he was back on the bench again a month later.
Back To France
He was loaned out to Marseille in the 2004/05 season and then Bordeaux in 2005/06 with the prospect of making it a permanent transfer.
He didn’t hack it at either of these clubs either. Neither club was sufficiently impressed, but Stade Rennais took the plunge and he became a regular starter in their starting 11 as a holding midfielder.
Cheyrou’s record at Lille, prior to arriving at Anfield in the summer of 2002, had been excellent. By the end of the 2007/08 season, he had made nearly as many league appearances for Stade Rennais as he did for Liverpool, Marseille and Bordeaux combined.
In January 2010 the 31-year-old moved to Cypriot club Anorthosis Famagusta. After six months in Cyprus, Cheyrou returned to France, signing a two-year deal with Nantes where he made 41 appearances in two seasons in Ligue 2.
In all, the New Zinedine Zidane made 48 appearances for Liverpool, scoring five goals. We will never know if he would have made it if it wasn’t for Gerard Houllier’s unnecessary and unwanted label. A shame really, but these things happen in football.
Thanks for the winner against Chavski Bruno!!
