Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill admits he's been following Togo international midfielder Moustapha Salifou for over 15 months.

Salifou signed for Villa on Friday from Switzerland's FC Wil and O'Neill told Villa's website: "Obviously I watched the World Cup games and they played France. Togo made a slow start as France went for it from the first minute, but the game settled and he did well.

"But that's not how it came about, it was the fact that his British agent had mentioned him to me before, but didn't pursue it when we took Nigel Reo-Coker on board. Once the agent called, I had to go back through my notes to see what I'd said about him at the time - to refresh my memory. Once I'd done that, I actually thought on deadline day that it was worth taking a little risk. The boy has great hunger and wants to do it. We've paid a nominal fee which can rise if he does well and the rest is up to him.

"He's really up for the challenge. He can play in a number of different positions, which is always encouraging. He can do a bit, there's no doubt about it."

Salifou is away with his country for next week's friendly clash with Nigeria and will then link up with his new Villa team mates.

O'Neill added: "He can speak a bit of English - generally French, but he can make himself understood and will understand what you're saying. I really did like his attitude. That comes across very clearly on the pitch, his keenness and his desire are first-class and when he saw the facilities here, that sealed it. I'm surprised that no-one before this had taken him. There was certainly interest and after we'd signed him he had about five calls from people saying they would do.

"For somebody who's played 40 internationals at 24 years of age, it was a deal well worth doing for us and getting a work permit wasn't a problem. It's absolutely and utterly risk-free."

"He's away with his country for the game with Mali at this minute. He'll be back next week and he's really up for it.

"Of course when we were weighing this up, I took into consideration things like the African Nations Cup. But that comes in January and we have plenty of time to organise things before then. I put notes down at the World Cup because I had to go and study games, but I wouldn't want to go overboard. I probably had notes by the end of the competition on every player that played in the World Cup.

"I kept the notes from 98 and I sometimes look at them when I have a spare moment to see what I thought about various players. I had the book that the BBC gave us for all the players and I've got notes beside them all and I like to look at them."