Joe Cole admitted that he “hated” Liverpool during his Chelsea days and revealed that he came close to joining the title-winning Valencia of Rafa Benitez before joining the Blues.
The former Reds player joined the West London club from West Ham in 2003 at the start of Roman Abramovich’s revolution at Stamford Bridge and won three Premier League titles and two FA Cups with Chelsea.
However, his career could have been very different if he had gone ahead to join Benítez’s Valencia, a year before the Spaniard left Mestalla for Anfield.
Speaking on the podcast ‘The Greatest Game with Jamie Carragher’, Cole told his former teammate at Liverpool about Abramovich’s choice of Chelsea over Spain and said: “I signed the same day that [Juan Sebastien] They saw and they were exciting times.
“Actually, I had to go to Valencia. My dad and my agent had gone out and they were a good team at the time, they had just won the title there.
“I remember they had actually come to see Lee Bowyer because he was playing for West Ham at the time. I imagined it, really, but when Chelsea came around it was very exciting and I didn’t think for a second it was an afterthought.
“When you look at the amount they paid for me (£ 6.6m) and the names of the players coming in, established stars, it was always going to be difficult for me, but I thought, well, I’ll go there and give it a try.”
Cole participated in Claudio Ranieri’s team 50 times in his first campaign and, feeling that he had risen in level, kept his place in the team when José Mourinho took over.
Facing Liverpool in the semi-finals of the Champions League In 2005, a rivalry was born and also a mutual dislike between the Reds and the Blues.
“We hate you Carra,” admitted Cole, who played in both games when Chelsea lost the 1-0 draw in total courtesy of Luis Garcia’s ‘ghost goal’.
“And we hate Manchester United, but that’s what José did to us, he made us horrible.
“Chelsea. Finish summary.
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