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Ryan Babel says England international striker nearly joined Liverpool in a ‘swap deal’

Charles Jones

Thu 27 February 2025 17:45, UK

Liverpool have missed out on some interesting transfer targets over the years.

Liverpool bid for Moises Caicedo 18 months ago before his move to Chelsea, but a deal collaped.

Meanwhile, Liverpool nearly signed Sami Khedira at one point too.

The Reds may have regretted missing out on the likes of Khedira and Caicedo, but they’ve also had some lucky escapes in the past.

Speaking on The Obi One Podcast, Ryan Babel has been discussing his time at Liverpool, and he’s shared details of a swap deal that almost happened at Anfield at one point.

• READ MORE: Liverpool are definitely interested in signing £45m player who’s already been spotted at Anfield

Carlton Cole almost joined Liverpool in a swap deal

Babel spoke about how Liverpool almost signed Carlton Cole from West Ham in a swap deal.

According to the Dutchman, Cole almost joined Liverpool in a deadline day switch, but, due to some miscommunication around the terms of Babel’s move to West Ham, the plug was pulled.

“It was deadline day and all of a sudden we were in a rush, they were going to loan me out to West Ham where Carlton Cole was doing really well, and they wanted to sign Carlton Cole, it was like a swap deal,” Babel said.

“My agent said, ok, if it’s a loan, fine.

“I got picked up, we went to the airport, in this small chopper, then we arrived in London and he said ‘you’re having a medical, sign a contract for five years.’ And it was like ‘Five years? What are you talking about? My agent said it was a loan.’ But they said no, they did the deal to pay West Ham with you plus some money for Carlton Cole.

“Did I miss something? I called my agent and asked if I was signing for five years with West Ham and he said it was a loan, so I put him on the phone and it was like wait a minute. My agent said absolutely not, so it ended up not happening.” “

Carlton Cole Premier League stats

Liverpool have missed out on some fantastic players over the years, Khedira and Caicedo being two examples.

However, it’s fair to say that the Reds didn’t miss out too much here when failing to sign Cole.

Indeed, while Cole was a serviceable Premier League striker for a team like West Ham, he wasn’t really at Liverpool’s level, especially at a time when the likes of Fernando Torres were at Anfield.

Cole’s Premier League stats show that he wasn’t really at that sort of level.

There was a lot to like about Cole as a striker, and, in a lot of ways, he would have been a decent backup option for Liverpool to provide something different off the bench.

However, it’s hard to imagine that anyone at Anfield would lose any sleep about missing out on this signing.

Cole was a good option for West Ham, but you need to be at that next level if you’re going to be pulling on the famous red shirt and playing in front of The Kop at Anfield.