View 3 ImagesJoe Cole admitted he regrets his decision to join Liverpool(Image: Getty)
Joe Cole previously confessed his absence of affinity with Liverpool meant he should never have joined the club following his departure from Chelsea. The former Blues midfielder, who spent seven years at Stamford Bridge, departed west London in 2010 to sign for the Reds on a free transfer.
Despite the anticipation surrounding his arrival at Anfield, it never worked out for Cole on Merseyside. He featured in just 42 matches for the club before making a return to West Ham in 2013.
It was following his re-signing for the Hammers that the former England international, 43, disclosed joining Liverpool initially was an error because he lacked the enthusiasm to represent the Premier League giants.
He said at the time: “I can only play for teams that I’m passionate about and I think that’s what went wrong for me at Liverpool. I didn’t feel a connection with the club or the place that I had at Chelsea and West Ham.”
Discussing his media duties upon joining the Reds, he was told by the interviewer he was joining the biggest country in England – a sentiment Cole admitted he thought was false despite initially agreeing with it.
“When I joined, the guy interviewing me said ‘you’ve joined the biggest club in the country’ and reeled off the trophies they’d won,” he explained, reports the Mirror.
View 3 ImagesJoe Cole spent seven years at Chelsea before joining Liverpool(Image: Getty)
“I just said ‘yeah, if you put it like that, I suppose you’re right’ and Liverpool used that as the headline to the interview. I didn’t want to upset anyone so I just went along with it. But obviously they’re not the biggest club in the country any more,” he said in 2013.
“How do you judge how big a club are? Nottingham Forest won the European Cup twice but they’re not a bigger club than Chelsea.”
The TNT Sports pundit will be returning to Stamford Bridge today as part of the Chelsea legends team who will face off against Liverpool FC legends, with all proceeds from the match going to charity.
Cole will be playing against several of his ex-Liverpool colleagues including Fabio Aurelio, Martin Skrtel and Pepe Reina. During his 2024 appearance on The Obi One Podcast, hosted by former Chelsea team-mate John Obi Mikel, Cole disclosed that a severe knee injury in 2009 meant he was never the same player again for the rest of his career.
He stated: “I was never the same player after that. I done everything, ACL, PCL, MCL and I was out for 11 months. My body was just failing me… I really wrecked myself. That’s how my body was after it.”
In addition to his lack of connection with Liverpool, Cole suggested that moving abroad 15 years ago would have been a better decision to extend his playing career. “I had a choice between Liverpool or Spurs because Arsenal pulled out and I just couldn’t go to Spurs,” he added.
“If I could have my time again, I would probably go, ‘No, you know what, wait.’ And I’d have gone abroad, somewhere hot, because playing in the heat actually helped my knee.”