I left Chelsea to join Liverpool – but I never wanted to go | Football

Joe Cole enjoyed a hugely successful seven-year spell at Chelsea – but the former England winger still harbours regret about the manner of his departure and his subsequent move to Liverpool.

Having come through the academy at West Ham alongside the likes of Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard, Cole was parachuted into the first team at just 17 years of age in 1999.

A versatile midfielder, known for his trickery and dribbling skills, Cole quickly became a mainstay of West Ham’s side, making 150 appearances in all competitions across his first five seasons.

Those displays caught the eye of clubs higher up the food chain, with Cole eventually making the move across London to join Chelsea in 2003 for a fee of £6.6 million.

At Stamford Bridge, the Englishman continued to flourish, helping Chelsea win three Premier League titles, two FA Cups and a League Cup.

However, a serious knee injury in the penultimate year of his contract ultimately saw negotiations over a new deal falter, with Cole eventually opting to leave on a free transfer after seven seasons at the club.

Having felt he could not return to West Ham or join Chelsea’s bitter rivals Tottenham, Cole accepted an offer from Liverpool, signing a four-year deal in July 2010.

A red card against Arsenal on debut got his Anfield career off to a bad start, with a combination of injuries and a loan spell in France seeing him make just 42 appearances before returning to West Ham in January 2013.

Reflecting back on his departure from Chelsea earlier this year, Cole admitted that he never wanted to leave and, with hindsight, perhaps should have taken a pay cut to ensure he stayed with the Blues.

The High Performance Podcast, Cole: ‘Looking back now, they never contacted me [about his contract situation during my time out with injury]. Then I got back from the injury, took me 11 months and I had about eight or nine months left on my contract.

‘But again, like that little bit of petulance in me, I was like, well, where were you when I was injured? Do you know what I mean? I was like, hold on, let me just, and the negotiations never really got going from that.

‘I think there was partly my ego was bruised because I didn’t, I thought to myself, I should have got the contract offer 18 months ago. And then they didn’t offer it to me. So there was a little bit of that going on.”

‘Then after about four, five, six months, it goes into the season, I’m starting to think, this might be my last six months. Never really wanted to go.

‘But again, you know, if I knew then what I know now, I’d have gone back to the table and taken maybe a cut price because I was happy, you know what I mean?’

Ledley King: ‘Cole was England’s most naturally gifted’

Speaking earlier in the year, former England teammate Ledley King said that Cole was the best of his generation when it came to natural talent.

‘In terms of just natural ability, Joe Cole was the best,’ he toldBetMGM

‘Joe went to Chelsea and it changed his game. He turned into a very much a team player and it wasn’t the same Joe that I remember when he was 17, who just played the game for fun and on pure instinct.

‘I’m sure he’d probably say the same thing if he looks back on all that he’s achieved – he could have actually been even better than he was.

‘[Steven] Gerrard, [Frank] Lampard and [Paul] Scholes were incredible players, don’t get me wrong, but at that age Joe was pure magic.

‘He was more natural than Stevie G [Steven Gerrard]. Stevie could do everything, but Joe was just a magician of a player. He was definitely different in that respect from most English players that we had at that time.

‘When he was 16 or 17 years old, Joe was different to everyone. He was different from all the English kids, he played like he was Brazilian.’

And while the move to Liverpool made sense at the time, Cole has since conceded that it was a decision he ultimately would not make now.

Asked if he could go back in time, would he still sign for Liverpool, Cole told the Premier League: ‘At the risk of upsetting Liverpool fans any more than they’re upset with me already, I probably wouldn’t.

‘But not for any fault of the club or because I didn’t like the club or anything. I signed for the previous owners and then they sold the club four or five weeks later.

‘And you know what football clubs are like, it’s hard enough when managers come and go, you can fall out of favour. But when the owners come and go…

‘I knew it was only a matter of time before Roy [Hodgson] got the boot, and that’s when my injuries started in the sense that, from my knee injury, I kept picking up muscle injuries, I couldn’t explode as quick as I wanted.

‘So right club, wrong time I’d say. If I could have my time again, I would probably go abroad, somewhere hot, because playing in the heat actually helped my knee.’

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