A long term problem at Liverpool has been a lack of a decent left sided wide player. Gerard Houllier attempted to fill this gap by signing French international winger Bernard Diomede in the summer of 2000. A product of the youth system at Auxerre, Diomede was one of a number of players at the French club including Djibril Cisse, Jean Alain Boumsong, and Phillipe Mexes that the Reds were linked with at the time. On paper, Diomede was a good fit. He was quick and tricky with experience at the highest level (including a World Cup winner’s medal as part of the victorious 1998 France squad) and after his home debut against Sunderland, there was some optimism that perhaps the left sided problem had been solved. Diomede put in a lively performance and scored with an overhead kick, only for the linesman to disallow it, claiming that it didn’t cross the line. Shortly afterwards, he suffered a serious knee injury and once he recovered, he found it difficult to force his way back into the starting line up. He was eventually loaned to AC Ajaccio back in his homeland and was released when his contract expired. More info on Bernard Diomede: ++ / LFChistory.net -- Past Present Future