Scoreboards

The soccer scoreboards in Liverpool will be showing Joe Cole’s name next season, as, in a surprise move, he has been transferred Liverpool from Chelsea. He has been offered wages in the region of $120,000 a week to move to the North-east club. Most pundits expected him to transfer to Arsenal or Tottenham Hotspur. Cole left his previous club Chelsea in June after he felt out of favour with the club over the course of last season. Cole is expected to wear the number seven shirt.

Cole will make the move up north to Liverpool this week in order to undertake his medical. Assuming he passes it, the transfer will be completed. This is a big move by Liverpool’s manager Roy Hodgson, and it will give Liverpool fans hope that next season will finally bring the club some silverware after years of disappointment.

Cole is one of England’s most gifted players, and with the status of Torres and Gerrard at the club still unclear, the signing of Cole demonstrates Liverpool’s desire to at least challenge for a place in the top four of the premier league in the next season.

Yossi Benayoun will move in the opposite direction: from Liverpool to Chelsea, with a payment of around $7 million to Liverpool.

The Serbian forward Milan Jovanovic joined Liverpool earlier this summer, and Cole is the second summer arrival at the club. Hodgson is still searching for a new left back as Fabio Aurelio left at the end of the season.

Some Liverpool fans are reported to be concerned about Cole’s motivation for moving to the club. Will he be loyal to the traditions of this great team or is he more interested in the money?
Jamie Redknapp, the former Liverpool player, whose father is the manager of Spurs, said that reports about Cole holding out for the most lucrative offer were not true. He explained that compared to some other players in the English League, he did not act greedily at all. He went on to say he was just after a deal, and was well within his rights to do so. He was a free agent and thus could ask for a high wage, but he never demanded anything astronomical, as some reporters have written.

Cole missed a lot of time at Chelsea in the 2009/2010 season as a result of his bad knee injury, and in the end lost his place in the England team (he went to the world cup but was used only occasionally as a substitute). This came after his name was all over the soccer scoreboards in the 2006 world cup (and qualifying campaign) after he scored some fantastic goals for his country.

He needs to hold down a regular first team place and play soccer now. With Liverpool he should regain his previous form, and justify his tag as England’s most skilled and gifted player.

For more information on Joe Cole, go to: wikipedia