For Cole, from the moment he was born in Islington, to a few weeks ago when he was shown the door at Chelsea, has spent the majority of his life in and around the city of London.

Cole, who moved to Camden at the age of six, started his football career in the east end, where he was a key part of the famous West Ham youth team which included the likes of Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick.

The midfielder's skills saw him compared with Paul Gascoigne as he rose through the Hammers ranks before he snubbed interest from Manchester United to swap the Boleyn Ground for Chelsea in 2003 as part of the first wave of acquisitions under billionaire Russian owner Roman Abramovich.

It was there that the young midfielder blossomed, but success did not come quickly. A victim of Claudio Ranieri's squad rotation policy, Cole was forced to spend as much time on the bench as he did in the starting XI.

The arrival of Jose Mourinho gave Cole a chance to make more starts, but his relationship with the Portuguese soured when the pair got involved in a spat over the youngster's failure to track back.

"He has two faces - one beautiful and one I don't like. He must keep one and change the other one," said Mourinho after Cole scored the winner against Liverpool, of all clubs, in 2004.

Some would expect a young, well-paid footballer to pack his bags and leave Stamford Bridge in a fit of rage but, to Cole's credit, he knuckled down enough to bounce back and persuade Mourinho to pick him ahead of stars like Damien Duff and Arjen Robben.

Cole's hard-working attitude may have endeared him to Mourinho, but his successor, Carlo Ancelotti, whilst praising him publicly, offered Cole limited first-team opportunities.

Almost half of Cole's 32 appearances for the club last year came from the bench. Despite this Cole did not, publicly at least, express his frustration.

His determination was perhaps shown best in the last half-hour of Chelsea's final match of the season when he came snarling off the bench to harass every Wigan player despite the fact that the Blues were already 4-0 up and well on their way to the title.

Cole's admission that he was not overly concerned about being released by Chelsea last month perhaps showed that he had grown privately frustrated with life at Stamford Bridge.

Cole professed that he wanted to feel "loved" by his new club, and has now headed to Merseyside.

Cole's move is a bold one considering he has spent most of his life 200 miles further south, but he may just have finally found a place where he can relaunch his career and rediscover his best form.