Your feelings on this are totally understandable. I’ve wanted a return on so many players over the years. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when we resigned Robbie Fowler. I think each player and situation should be judged on it’s own merits, so we should be careful when saying that X won’t work out because Y didn’t… but we can’t rule out a certain correlation factor at least.
I haven’t watched Babel at all this season. I havent seen the moment you’re talking about but I’ll take your word for it.
If he truly has been working hard and is willing to continue an improved work ethic then I actually think your pie in the sky idea has got some substance. I was never happy with how the whole Babel thing kinda fizzled out. I don’t think anyone was. He did seem like a talented player who never really applied himself. If he’s changed that and is available for a cut price/wages then I don’t see why we can’t at least look at him.
If I could chose an ex-player for us to go after though it would be Suarez. I think if we had him from the start of this season, we’d be several pints ahead of City now. That may seem like it’s doing our lads a disservice, it’s not. If anything, it would get more out of them as they’d be more motivated and well rested, as a result of us having quality competition/back up.
Food for thought but I’d say, likely nothing more.