West Ham flew star in for transfer – and ‘refused to take him home’ when it collapsed
Ex-Liverpool winger Ryan Babel was on the verge of a Transfer Deadline Day switch to West Ham as part of a swap deal with Carlton Cole, but key details were left out in discussions with him
Ryan Babel once flew to London from Liverpool with hours left of Transfer Deadline Day – only for his West Ham deal to embarrassingly collapse.
Carlton Cole was on course for a move to Anfield back in the late summer of 2010. And as part of the move, Babel was informed with next to zero notice he would be heading in the opposite direction.
However, while the Dutchman believed he was going on loan to Upton Park, it later emerged there had been some major miscommunication between the parties involved.
A five-year contract was claimed to have been lined up by West Ham, and ex-Ajax star Babel had no intention of quitting the Reds at that time on a permanent basis, having been on Merseyside for three years and only being 23 years of age.
Speaking on talkSPORT on Tuesday (July 25), Babel revealed: “At that time Liverpool tried to force a last-minute transfer on me. I didn’t necessarily want to go but Liverpool was very keen on signing Carlton Cole, who was at that time at West Ham.
“It was gonna be a very shock move, I remember I was in bed – we had a day off on that particular day and all of a sudden I got the call like ‘hey, get back in, you’re going to London because we’re going to make a swap deal with Carlton Cole’. I remember calling my manager, I spoke to them, it will be a loan deal for a season. So I was like ‘okay, cool’.”
What’s the craziest transfer story you know of? Let us know in the comments section below
It all went downhill from there, as Babel continued: “I don’t know if it’s still the same but Deadline Day was at 6pm in that day and we had like five hours left or something – it was a little bit afternoon, one o’clock, so they told me to come to the airport. When I went to the airport I see like this little, mini helicopter that literally two people fit in and I was like ‘are we going to London in that little thing?’
“I flew in the helicopter with the sporting director – I forgot his name – and the helicopter was one of the worst experiences because the whole journey we had turbulence, and I don’t really like flying – I’m scared – but that turbulence was really shocking. When we arrived I was like half wet from all the sweat and everything.”
He was then poised to commute to the Hammers’ training ground, where he would supposedly pen the contract for a year-long loan.
However, he and his representatives had the wrong end of the stick, as he added: “There was a car waiting for us and while we’re in the car he was explaining me the deal. He was like ‘so yeah, you’re gonna sign a five-year contract, we’re gonna make a swap deal – a permanent deal’, then I was like ‘wait a minute, I thought it was going to be a loan deal?’
“So I was calling my manager and my agent like ‘hey, they’re telling me to sign five years’, he was like ‘no, no, no, put me on the phone with them.’
“So then apparently there was a misunderstanding, and I guess West Ham was expecting to sign me five years. Obviously we didn’t want that and the deal fell off.”
Babel couldn’t even finish the day with a flight home, as he was left to fend for himself with a journey back to Merseyside on the train.
He concluded: “Funnily enough, instead of flying us back in a helicopter, they dropped me off at a train station like ‘yeah, go back to Liverpool.’ So, that was quite an experience.”
Babel spent the first half of the 2010/11 season with Liverpool before being sold to German side Hoffenheim on a deal worth up to £8million, signing a two-and-a-half year deal there.
2019 saw him briefly return to the Premier League with Fulham where he enjoyed a decent spell. Now at the age of 36, Babel is plying his trade in Turkey with Eyüpspor.
