This was too good to pass up on.
From Football Rumours but judge not lest thee be… err… a wig and gavel owner. Is it true? Certainly sounds plausible. There was a tale of the Liverpool boy Babel in a helicopter doing the rounds as that window was gearing up to close.
As I recall it, Babel denied the whole thing and as ever the tale was compounded by the addition of Cartoon Cole being hurled into the mixer.
Anyway, here’s what there is…
20 Jan 2011 10:46:48
Posting in here. Comes from the same source that told me about Purslow joining a couple of weeks before he did and also of the H&G takeover before it happened. Everytime he has told me something it’s been spot on.
How Spurs got Van Der Vaart.
When VDV#s transfer to Bayern fell through – he was offered to Liverpool first for £8m. We didn’t have the money but Purslow and Hodgson decided to off load anyone they could. West Ham (of all clubs) offered £8m for Babel. We accepted and put him “in that helicopter”. Real Madrid accepted our bid.
In the meantime – Daniel Levy got wind of the transfer and offered Liverpool more money for Babel. Babel & Agent were more than happy to go and we accepted the higher bid.
Helicopter heads to Tottenham. Babel lands and is kept waiting for 3 hours for a medical – gets ____ off and leaves.
We don’t have time to get any money together and Tottenham call VDV’s agent and offer to buy him.
Rest as they say, is history.
Please don’t re-post all over the place.
Ooops.
we don’t know what happened but we know babel isn’t worth the wages because we’ve seen him for the last few years
erm… have any of you thought that if this was actually true, why did Babel not end up back at West Ham? To believe that you’d have to believe Babel’s agent didn’t have a contingency plan, with millions of pounds at stake on deadline day. And why would Liverpool want VDV after already having got Cole?
Levy’s good; he’s not a genius. Get over it.
Agreed