Liverpool winning race for Cissokho

Liverpool are close to signing Valencia defender Aly Cissokho on a season-long loan, the Express understands.

The Reds are set to pay the La Liga side an initial £900,000, and would have the option of buying the French international for £3.5m at the end of the season.

Sunderland have also been linked with a move for the 25 year old, though Brendan Rodger’s men are favourites as they look to give Jose Enrique competition at left-back.

In Iago Aspas and Luis Alberto, Rodgers has already bought two players from Spain this summer, while they have also been linked with Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata.

Cissokho only moved to Valencia last summer, having spent four years with Lyon in Ligue 1, during which time he won his one and only cap for France, in a 2-1 friendly defeat to Norway back in 2010.

He began his career at Gueugnon, before spending two years in Portugal ahead of a return to France.