By Tim Hodges
New Albion loan signing Abdul Razak took advice from Manchester City superstar Gael Clichy when making his decision if he should join the Seagulls.
Clichy pointed out what a good footballing side the Seagulls were, and how the style of play would suit the 19-year-old midfielder.
Both Portsmouth and Burnley were also keen to sign Razak, although he already thinks he has made the right decision, highlighting that he likes the way Gus Poyet talks about the game.
Razak played in the Crystal Palace youth set up but Palace were unable to sort out his paperwork and he moved to City. He joked about being aware of the fierce rivalry between the clubs.
He briefly commented on Albion’s now infamous thrashing at Anfield on Sunday, saying that he thought the Albion were a little unlucky and that they came up against a very strong and determined Liverpool team.
Roberto Mancini and David Platt told him to go to Albion and enjoy himself and he suggested that Mancini had used him as a holding midfielder, to help cover the defensive positions when attacking.
He likened himself to Yaya Toure and suggested that this was the reason that he had not joined Albion sooner, as he covered Toure’s position while the player was at the African Nations Cup.
He has learnt a lot from Toure and has taken lot of advice from him on how to improve on his own game.
Razak told Brighton and Hove News that he had trained with Albion four times. And he thinks that there are a lot of good players at the club who know how to pass the ball.
He thinks that his style of play will allow him to easily fit into the Albion team, though in his experience players get a lot less time on the ball in the Championship than they do in the Premier League.
He indicated that he scores a few goals from midfield – as he did in his last outing for City reserves.
When question about the Amex, he said that it was a beautiful stadium, but in his opinion not quite as nice as Manchester City’s!
