Leaving Chelsea and moving to the North West has clearly been a bit of a mistake for Joe Cole, and now it appears he might be chancing his arm on the North East to see if the Geordies can inspire him more than the Scousers did.
It is a big fall from grace for a player that was dubbed one of the most exciting players that England has produced.
One of many graduates from the West Ham United academy, Cole was highly sought after from a young age, it is thought that he was the subject of a £10million bid from Manchester United at just 16 years of age. He made his first team debut for the Hammers at 17, and went on to make 126 league appearences for the club, scoring 10 goals, he also captained the club at the age of only 21. Sadly Cole could not save West Ham from relegation and on the back of that he moved across the City and signed for Chelsea in a deal worth around £6.6million.
He had a successful career with the blues and won many trophies including three Premier League titles and three FA Cups, he became a first team fixture and played a lot of games in a squad where rotation was the norm. In 7 years he played 278 games for the club, and in that time he scored 40 goals, as well as racking up many England caps and becoming an important part of the national set up.
His contract with Chelsea expired at the end of the 2009/2010 season and Cole moved to Liverpool under Roy Hodgson signing a 4 year contract for what is thought to be around £90,000 a week. After England’s dreadful World Cup campaign that Cole was a part of, the 29 year olds league campaign didn’t get off to a great start either as he was sent off inside 45mins against Arsenal on his league debut. Things got worse for Cole in his next game, a Europe League match against Trabzonspor where he missed a penalty, from there things have not really improved for the Londoner.
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His time on Merseyside has been made difficult with niggling injuries and suspension, the signing was considered a coup at the time but Cole has not featured under new manager Kenny Dalglish and it appears Liverpool will move him on this Summer to bring this unhappy period in his life to an end.
Reports emerging today are linking Newcastle with a move for the one time talent in a deal worth £5million, as it does not need repeating business has been conducted between the two clubs in recent weeks and it seems strange that a deal could not be worked out sooner as part of the Carroll deal.
If he could regain his form it would be a fantastic signing for the Toon, capable of playing on either wing or through the middle he would be a great asset if on form. The permanent signing of Hatem Ben Arfa will give them attacking threat down one wing and if they were to pick up Cole and deploy him on the opposite side it could potentially be quite an imposing attacking unit with Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton picking passes centrally.
At £5million I think it represents good business for both clubs, Cole was a free agent so cost Liverpool nothing, and in the grand scheme of things £5million is not a massive amount of money for a club like Newcastle to be spending, especially on the back of receiving £35million for Andy “Nutter” Carroll. The only question marks are over whether Joe Cole will ever regain the form he showed for years at Chelsea, if he can do that, he would be a great signing for Newcastle and would represent fantastic value for money.
For more transfer goings on, follow me on twitter @soccercityjoe to get them first.
