In what has to be considered a mild surprise, Joe Cole signed today with Liverpool on a four-year deal believed to be worth nearly £90,000 a week.
I had expected Cole to sign for Arsenal or Spurs so that he could stay in London but the chance to play every week at Liverpool looks to be the deciding factor in the deal.
Signing Joe Cole is a huge win for Liverpool’s new boss Roy Hodgson. Not only was he able too convince Cole to turn down accept Europa League football instead of Champions League football, but he can now go back to Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, and show them that Liverpool can still compete for quality signings.
The signing will also give the Liverpool fans hope that Liverpool will once again challenge for the title this season.
Liverpool great Ian Rush feels the capture of Cole is a real statement of intent that Liverpool can still attract the game’s top players.
“I think it’s fantastic news for the club,” Rush told LFC TV. “Joe Cole is a wonderful player and I think he left Chelsea because he wasn’t getting a regular game. I was a bit surprised he didn’t appear much for England in the World Cup because he’s a player that can unlock any defence. Liverpool Football Club for me is the biggest club in the world. We might not have been successful as we would have liked to have been recently, but this shows we can still attract top name players, whether that’s an England international or a foreign international. We’ve got a great new manager in Roy Hodgson and he knows what he wants, and he can talk these players into signing for our club. This is the signing supporters wanted and it’s a big boost for them. You look at last season when we went into it not hoping but thinking we were going to win the league. This season people are thinking are we going to finish in the top-four. I think this sends a sign out to Liverpool supporters that the club do mean business.”
The Welsh scoring legend also firmly believes Cole will bring a new dimension to the attack.
“I think it’s a fantastic buy,” he added. “When you look at what we’ve got attacking wise we’ve got younger lads but we needed more experience and Cole brings that. Joe could play just behind Torres. People don’t know his position because he can play on the left, right and just off the striker, and I think it’s a wonderful signing. Skill wise he is the best in England – there is no one better. I’m sure Roy Hodgson will play him in every game, especially if he is playing well, and maybe getting regular football is a reason why he has come to Liverpool. To get Joe to come out of London and come to Liverpool is a coup for Hodgson itself. A lot of people were expecting him to stay in London because that’s where he was born and been brought up. I’m sure the supporters will get right behind him and hopefully this will be one signing that will be great for us. He has got time to play in a couple of games before the season starts and he can bed in and get ready for the start of the season.”
Cole is basically a straight replacement for Yossi Benayoun, who moved to Chelsea for £5.5million earlier this month. If Cole can regain the form he showed before his knee injury, then Liverpool for the better part of this deal.
picture source: Liverpool FC
