Remember reading an exert from someone's biography, a foreign lad, and he said was told by the PR people to say he was a boyhood Liverpool fan etc when they signed him along with some other 'buz words' that appeal to the cretins.
VERY rarely does any player stay at a team unless it's the top level their ability allows already.
Joe Cole definitely had that sort of experience:
http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/j...gest-club-in-england-but-theyre-not-any-more/