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Friends reunited for France-Senegal sequel

Cygan can be new rock of Highbury

Alex Hayes
Sunday 11 August 2002 00:00 BST
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When the Arsenal players first saw the opening-day fixture, most were delighted. Newly promoted Birmingham City at home is as good a start to the campaign as the Double winners could have hoped for. One man, though, has not shared in the enthusiasm. Pascal Cygan was one of the many millions who sat at home and watched in disbelief and shock as France's overconfident world champions fell at the first against the minnows of Senegal in South Korea. The Gunners' new centre-back has no intention of letting his Francophile employers make the same mistake next Sunday.

But, then, Cygan does know something that his international team-mates did not, namely that any side with the Senegalese captain, Aliou Cissé, at their heart are going to take some beating. "Aliou and I are great friends, and we were lucky enough to start our professional careers in the same Lille team of the 1995-96 season," says the 28-year-old at Arsenal's training complex north of London, "but I will be doing everything to stop him and Birmingham from scoring at Highbury."

Close your eyes and ignore the accent; and you could be talking to the man Cygan has been brought in to replace. Tony Adams – who has yet to announce his retirement, but has obviously played his last competitive game – had many friends in the game, but he, too, never shirked his responsibilities on match days. "You will quickly be found out if you do not give your all," Cygan explains. The similarities between Cygan and Adams are striking. True, the bald Frenchman may look more like his compatriot Frank Leboeuf, but his character and demeanour are à la Adams. Both are tall and athletic; both rely on anticipation rather than speed; and, most importantly, both like to let their football do the talking.

Cygan is the quiet type, but ask him about the former Arsenal captain and his eyes light up. "You don't need to know him personally to realise what an important figure he has been at Arsenal," the French stopper says. "Every other picture on the walls is of him, and in almost everyone of them he is holding up a trophy; that is all you need to know about the guy. He will always be unique in the eyes of the supporters, so whoever takes up his role on the pitch will only ever replace the player – not the man."

Cygan adds: "I would love to think that I can eventually assume some of Adams' responsibilities. At Lille, I was the captain and helped orchestrate the team, so I guess there are certain similarities in the way we approach the game. As for our characters, it is difficult to make an assessment because I have not yet met him. I am sure we will see each other when he comes to the club in the next few weeks, but all I know so far is that he is respected by his peers and referees, that he keeps himself to himself, and that he does not seek publicity. From those points of view, yes, we are quite alike."

Where the two defensive towers differ is that Cygan has never played for his country. Furthermore, the Frenchman doubts he will ever represent Les Bleus. "I think that I am coming to Arsenal at just the right age," he says, "but my chances of breaking into the national team are slim. But I am really not worrying about that too much. All that matters is that I impose myself in the Premiership."

Cygan might have graced English football 12 months earlier had the West Ham hierarchy shown a little more decency. After advanced negotiations with the player last summer, during which the manager and chairman expressed a willingness to bring him to east London, the deal suddenly fell through. "I was amazed, to be honest," Cygan says. "They came over to talk to me in Lille and I even drove them back to the Eurostar station in my car, but they never had the courtesy to contact me after that. Even if they didn't want to sign me, a call would have been nice."

There were no such problems with the Arsenal deal, as Wenger made his position clear and stuck by it throughout the subsequent dealings with Lille. A fee of £2.1m was eventually agreed and Cygan became Arsenal's first new signing since last season's Double. The Lens-born defender is acclimatising to his new surroundings but admits that even now, some two months after he put pen to paper, he cannot quite believe what has happened to him. "Somebody asked me the other day whether I had signed here because I'd been seduced by Arsène Wenger's discourse, but you don't need to be sold Arsenal Football Club. All you have to do is visit the training facilities to realise that this is another world." Cygan may be one of the key arrivals of the pre-season, but he does not expect to step into Adams' boots, let alone the Arsenal first team. "The manager has told us that selection will be made according to performance," says the son of Polish immigrants. "Whoever is playing well will be in the team, so I have to make sure I am always one of the form players."

Perhaps it is the difficult nature of Cygan's road to success that has made him such a level-headed individual. He may not have had to cope with the traumas of alcoholism or drug addiction, but he has nonetheless had to battle with his own personal demons. Rejected by the club who formed him, Valenciennes, then verbally abused by the fans of Wasquehal, who thought he was not pulling his weight, in the mid-Nineties, and finally criticised by the Lille faithful for seeking to join West Ham last summer, it is perhaps little surprise that his younger brother, Thierry, jokes that "if Pascal ever smiles make sure you take a photo".

Cygan says that his tough education has taught him not to underestimate opponents. "Even just from playing in a few pre-season friendlies here," he says in anticipation of today's Community Shield against Liverpool in Cardiff, "I have realised that the physical demands will be great in England. Whoever you play against, it is always going to be a battle."

Having watched other Frenchmen make their names at Arsenal, the softly spoken giant is anxious not to let the Gallic side down. "The size and ambition of the club hit me last week," he says. "I don't speak much English, so I didn't understand everything that Arsène Wenger was saying, but I did see that he had written on the notice board in the dressing room that we need to go a long way in the Champions' League, hold on to the Premier League, and retain the FA Cup. God, I thought, I'm here to win everything."

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