Liverpool midfielder Joe Cole to rejoin West Ham with £3m pay-off Liverpool said they will save about £4 million by paying Cole to leave now, given that the last 18 months of his deal is worth about £7 million. However, that still equates to a considerable bill to move him off the payroll. For his part, Cole is desperate to play regular football again, recognising he has no future at Liverpool under Brendan Rodgers. In fact, he has been a bit-part player under three successive Liverpool managers. Roy Hodgson never fancied him, Kenny Dalglish sent Cole on loan to Lille in the summer of 2011, and Rodgers made it clear from day one that he was free to join another club. The attraction of Upton Park, the club where he made his name as a schoolboy international and teenage prodigy, is clearly sentimental as much as professional. Cole scored the equaliser in Liverpool's 3-2 win against West Ham last month, but tellingly refused to celebrate the goal. Once West Ham had declared an interest, they were inevitably his first choice, despite his affection for Redknapp. It will be an emotional moment when Cole wears the West Ham shirt again, his career having gone full circle, but there remains a sense of unfulfilled promise about a player who was once regarded the exciting future of English football. Now he finds his career in need of resuscitation at the club where it all began. When Cole was only 16 and courting attention in the West Ham youth team, Manchester United were believed to be prepared to pay £10 million for him. He made his debut in an FA Cup tie 14 years ago this month, aged 17, and was named the club captain when he was only 21. After West Ham's relegation in 2003 - having played more than 100 games in five years - he joined Chelsea, where he won three Premier League titles and two FA Cups. His career has stalled since his last season at Stamford Bridge, when he struggled to recover from injury and was sidelined by manager Carlo Ancelotti. Liverpool signed him at tumultuous period in their history, in the summer of 2010 when the club were for sale and looking for a new manager, while players such as Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina were considering their future. It was hoped that the Bosman signing of Cole would send a message that the club retained their ambition to buy players of pedigree. He became one of the club's top earners. Instead, his move to Anfield began appallingly when he was sent off on his Premier League debut against Arsenal. After that, one setback followed another as he was unable to get a run in the side. The new owners, Fenway Sports Group, then used Cole as an example of ill-advised recruitment policies of the previous regime. With Liverpool still in the process of trying to move out big earners to relocate funds, they will welcome Cole's exit. He is unlikely to be the only departure from Anfield this month. Nuri Sahin - signed on loan amid a degree of fanfare from Real Madrid last August - is also free to end his spell prematurely. The Turkish midfielder has struggled to adapt to English football and has been relegated to the bench. Fulham have joined the chase to take him on loan, with former club Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan also showing interest. As with Cole, ending Sahin's spell at Anfield will enable Rodgers to divert resources towards players he wants to recruit, rather than those inherited or thrust upon him.