Liverpool announced yesterday that they have signed former Chelsea player Joe Cole on a 4-year deal. Liverpool beat off competition from Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham to sign the creative midfield player on a free transfer. Cole has flown out to our Swiss training camp where he met up with new manager Roy Hodgson as well as his new teammates, before completing a medical over the coming days.
This news has absolutely delighted supporters and has also led to Steven Gerrard committing his future to the club today. The fact that Gerrard has declared his desire to remain at the club could also lead to Fernando Torres, and possibly even Javier Mascherano, doing the same.
Joe is the perfect replacement for the recently departed Yossi Benayoun, who joined Cole's former club for a fee believed to be around £5 million. He is an inventive player, who can play on both wings or in the hole behind a main striker. Cole also possesses the ability to change a game as a substitute off the bench, which could prove vital in securing critical points in the last moments of games next season.
Cole suffered an injury-plagued campaign last year, missing substantial parts of Chelsea's double winning season. Moreover, he was disliked and under-used by the London side's Italian boss Carlo Ancelotti, who frequently decided to leave the England international on the bench.
However, Cole still played a vital role in helping Chelsea to win both the Premier League and the FA Cup. He started against Manchester United at Old Trafford, and played superbly, scoring the all-important first goal that led to Chelsea claiming a 2-1 victory, putting them in the driving seat in the Premier League title race. Then, he featured for the last 20 minutes as the Blues beat struggling Portsmouth 1-0 in the FA Cup Final.
Despite the excitement of winning the League and Cup double for the first time in Chelsea's history, Cole refused to commit his future to the club, saying that he was now concentrating on England's World Cup campaign.
Cole secured his place on the plane to South Africa thanks to an impressive second half display against Japan in a build up match, where he was comfortably England's best player.
However, unfortunately he played a total of only 44 minutes during England's four games in the tournament, leading to a public outcry from many fans who were disappointed that he hadn't been given a chance. Ironically, these are the same supporters who are now deriding him as "overrated" and "past-it" after he decided to move to the most successful club in British history instead of their lesser sides.
Joe is believed to be on £90,000 a week, leading some to claim that he has only moved to Merseyside because of the money offered him. However, there are many more important factors that encouraged him to join our great club.
Firstly, Liverpool was the one place where he could be guaranteed regular first team football. Both Tottenham and Arsenal have several players who are similar to the London lad, whereas Liverpool were crying out for a creative footballer like Joe Cole to arrive and brighten up the midfield. If he plays well, Hodgson will pick him. It's as simple as that.
Also, Cole is likely to feature in his favourite position at Anfield, which is in the hole behind the main striker. In Liverpool's 4-2-3-1 formation Cole could easily fit in to the second striker role just behind Fernando Torres.
Not only would this allow Cole to play at his attacking best behind a world class striker, it would also mean that Steven Gerrard could dominate play in the middle of the park.
In a similar fashion to the Alonso-Gerrard-Torres axis that worked so brilliantly and efficiently only a couple of season's ago, the Gerrard-Cole-Torres partnership could prove very effective, whilst also solving the problem that we had last season where we found it difficult to link play between the midfield and the attack, mainly due to the fact that we played with two holding midfielders who are simply nowhere near as good as Steven Gerrard at passing a football long distances.
The capture of Joe Cole on a free transfer is magnificent news and confirms what Rafa repeated towards the end of his spell in charge, that Liverpool Football Club will always attract star players regardless of whether we have Champions League football or not.
This news has lifted the air of resignation around Anfield and means I cannot wait for the new season to begin.
Roll on 15th August!
YNWA
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