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Ryan Babel: I didn't get the right guidance at Liverpool, now I want to show my potential at Fulham
Ryan Babel has his own 10-year challenge – to show his full potential in England a decade after leaving Liverpool, where he felt let down by successive managers and coaches.
The Dutch winger, now 32, has joined the social media craze comparing self-portraits from 10 years ago to now, and Babel feels he has matured enormously from the raw kid who left Ajax for Liverpool at 21 years old. Babel spent three troubled years at Anfield before leaving for Hoffenheim in 2011 and has now joined Fulham, his seventh move in the past eight years.
As Claudio Ranieri's side prepare to face Tottenham at Craven Cottage on Sunday, Babel wants to finally show an English audience what he can do. “I feel I’ve done so much in my career but a little part of me feels I still have unfinished business here in the Premier League,” he said.
“I wanted to develop as they (Liverpool) had promised me before I joined, to be given the guidance I needed to become a better player. That didn’t happen for a lot of different reasons and I didn’t fulfil my potential. I was young. Maybe I should have stayed one or two more years in Holland. I had been living with my parents so it was the first time living abroad and by myself. There are lot of things coming at you at the same time - different country, different culture.”
Rafael Benitez signed Babel, who also played under Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish, but he felt he never got the guidance he needed. “No, not from the coaches - you know like extra work, teaching me the English game. I came from Ajax where you play 4-3-3 and as a winger they didn’t want you to defend.
“In the English 4-4-2 you have to change your mentality from a winger to a left midfielder, having to help your full-back. I was struggling with that, especially in my first year, and I don’t think they taught me how to manage that properly. I had to find out myself and maybe that was why I wasn’t playing consistently.”
He also had a controversial image off the field, being fined £10,000 for improper conduct by the FA after tweeting a mocked-up image of Howard Webb wearing a Manchester United shirt after the referee had handled an FA Cup tie between the sides in 2011.
Babel acknowledged his mistake, but says his 'bad-boy' image was misconstrued. “There was nothing wrong with my attitude,” he said.
“A lot of things that were written about me bothered me, like my mentality was not good. But I have never been a difficult person. I was always easy. I arrived on time, I was always professional.”
He almost joined Tottenham and West Ham in 2010, but eventually went to Germany before returning to Ajax, where he spent a season alongside the fledgling talent of Christian Eriksen. Babel has been surprised how well the Dane has done since joining Tottenham.
“I was very sceptical about him going England after we played together in 2012. He was amazing technically but physically he didn’t want to go into challenges. But he has amazed me and is an incredible player who is much stronger than he was before.”
Fulham face an uphill battle to avoid relegation but Babel is up for the fight. “I am 10 years older, with much more experience of life and football I am more mature. It is a good challenge and I want to take this chance to see how I do now.”