Ryan Sessegnon has revealed why he chose to join Tottenham Hotspur from Fulham despite previous interest from Liverpool
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Ryan Sessegnon attends the special screening of "The Beautiful Game" at The Ham Yard Hotel
Ryan Sessegnon attends the special screening of "The Beautiful Game" at The Ham Yard Hotel
(Image: Simon Ackerman/WireImage)
Before Liverpool signed Andy Robertson in 2017, left-back had been a problem position for the Reds for the majority of the Premier League era. Some of their worst signings in the modern era have been flops in such a position.
Paul Konchesky, Christian Ziege, Julian Dicks, Andrea Dossena and Aly Cissokho are arguably the worst perpetrators, but beyond John Arne Riise and perhaps Fabio Aurelio, you won’t find many of Robertson’s predecessors who are remembered too fondly by Kopites.
In truth, Liverpool could find themselves again in need of a new left-back in the not-too-distant future with Robertson now the wrong side of 30 and, having struggled with injuries and consistency over the past 18 months, also out of contract in 2026.
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The Scot will depart as an Anfield legend, whenever that might be, having won every major honour during his near eight-year Reds career to date.
While his current form might be the subject of scrutiny, he made it look ridiculously easy when first tasked with solving Liverpool’s problem position under Jurgen Klopp back in 2017.
The German swiftly lost faith in Alberto Moreno before utilising James Milner out of position at left-back for the entirety of the 2016/17 season before landing Robertson that summer.
In the previous two years, the Reds had scoured the market for a new left-back. Both Benjamin Mendy and Emerson Palmieri were on Liverpool’s radar before they moved for the Scotland international. Meanwhile, they also failed in pursuits of younger options like Ben Chilwell and Ryan Sessegnon.
The latter would eventually leave Fulham to sign for Tottenham Hotspur in a £25m deal in August 2019 - two years after the Reds’ initial interest. In truth, his time in North London would be plagued by injury and he ended up returning to the Cottagers on a free transfer last summer.
But with Liverpool not the only big side that had been chasing his signature prior to his move to Spurs, he has revealed why he decided to join Tottenham - with the Reds inadvertently involved after previously missing out on the defender.
"So Tottenham were chasing me for a number of years, and I knew that [Mauricio] Pochettino at the time wanted me a lot,” he recalled on a recent instalment of the Rising Ballers podcast, as quoted bythe Mirror.
"Once I kind of saw that Tottenham were really pushing to sign me, that's when I thought 'you know what'. And they'd just got to the Champions League final the year before when they lost against Liverpool.
“So I thought me as a young player working under Pochettino, it was probably the right time to go there and work under him - so I decided to make the jump there.
"I knew what teams were after me that season we got relegated in the Premier League. From there, it was just about kind of choosing where I wanted to go.
“And yeah, that's how I chose Tottenham. Obviously my agent told me about all the things behind the scenes with the club, and how they wanted to sign me. All that kind of stuff."