Liverpool sign Joe Cole!!!

I’m stunned to hear we’ve signed Joe Cole [subject to a medical]. Delighted but stunned.

Even though they were separate deals, we’ve essentially done a player swap with Chelsea exchanging 30-year old Yossi Benayoun for 28-year old Joe Cole plus £6m. Can we sell them the Brooklyn Bridge while we’re at it?

Yes, Cole has had injury problems over the last few seasons that have severely limited his availability and rightly mean he arrives at Anfield with question marks hanging over his head but when fit, I believe he is a better player than Yossi. Crucially, he is the sort of big name player that might convince Messrs Gerrard and Torres to stick around for another campaign or two.

Harshly labelled a flair player, I recall being really impressed with Cole when he captained West Ham at the age of just 21. He looked a real player in central midfield and though the team was relegated, no one could argue that Cole was culpable in that. Rumour had it that he was set to join us in the summer of 2003 before Abramovich pitched up at Chelsea and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse (I mean financially – I doubt horses’ heads were involved). Then he became a real thorn in our side thrice netting winners against us in 1-0 defeats to Mourinho’s mercenaries.

I think this is a wonderful coup for the club and for Hodgson – who I am assuming was involved in some capacity.

What slightly vexes me is why the player chose to join us. He had offers on the table from Arsenal and Tottenham – both of whom have qualified for the Champions League and whom would have enabled him to remain in London where his family is settled.

Why would he want to sign for us? He can’t believe we will be title contenders next season and there’s not even any certainty we can finish in the top four. Our off the field issues are well known and clearly any outsider can see ours is not a happy club. If working for an English manager was his motivation, he could have joined Harry Redknapp at Spurs and Spurs also have more English players than we do.

I can only assume that we offered him a very attractive contract which, at the age of 28 and with a complete set of domestic medals already in his back pocket, he felt was too good to turn down. Cynical? Perhaps. It could be that he enjoyed the company of Gerrard and Carra so much on international duty that he wants to be around them 24/7 or that Glen Johnson was his best mate during their time together at Stamford Bridge? Or maybe his is a genuine fan of the club and/or was so inspired by the atmosphere at Chelsea’s two Champions League semi-final defeats at Anfield? Maybe the chance to don the famous number 7 shirt is too tempting to resist?

Of course, it wasn’t too long ago that I thought beating off the challenge from Man Ure to sign Harry Kewell on the cheap was fantastic news and we all know how that turned out (prick). However, for now I see this as an unexpectedly positive turn of events in a summer from which I expected nothing but doom and gloom.