Phil Babb
Birthdate: 30 November 1970
Birthplace: Lambeth, London, England
Other clubs: Bradford City (1990-92), Coventry City (1992-94), Tranmere Rovers (loan 2000), Sporting Lisbon (2000-02), Sunderland (2002-04)
Bought from: Coventry City
Signed for LFC: £3.6m, 01.09.1994
International debut: 23.03.1994 vs. Russia
International caps: Ireland 35/0 (25/0 at LFC) - 2002
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Liverpool debut: 17.09.1994
Last appearance: 16.05.1999
Debut goal: 04.09.1996
Last goal: 04.09.1996
Contract expiry: 01.07.2000
Win ratio: 52.35% W: 89 D: 44 L: 37
Total games/goals opposite LFC: 5 / 1
LFC league games/goals: 128 / 1
Total LFC games/goals: 170 / 1
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Player profile
After going through the youth system at Millwall without making an appearance Babb established himself in midfield at third division Bradford from 1990, scoring 14 goals in 80 League appearances and In July 1992 he got his big break when he moved to Premiership Coventry City. He took over the captaincy at the club and was voted Player of the Year at the Sky Blues in the 1993/94 season. Babb became Britain's most expensive defender when he was bought along with John Scales to solve Liverpool's defensive problems after shining brightly for Ireland in the 1994 World Cup. Babb's strengths were his speed, man-marking skills and tackling but his distribution of the ball, positional sense and sometimes alarming carelessness let him down. He became an integral part of Evans' 5-3-2 formation with Scales and Ruddock alongside him in the centre of defence. Babb scored a single goal for Liverpool that came against his former club, Coventry, on 4 September 1996. Dominic Matteo was taken aback as everyone else: "The joke was definitely on the rest of the players. Everyone said that he wouldn't score, but he kept them quiet with that goal." Babb was delighted by his goal scored at the far post from a centre by Jason McAteer: "The lads are still in shock, in even more shock than me. I still haven't come down yet. It's such a nice feeling to score against your old club."
Babb was a regular in his first two and a half seasons at the club but lost his way somewhat in the otherwise impressive 1996/97 that ended ultimately in disappointment. Mick McCarthy, then Republic of Ireland's coach, tried to analyse what had happened to the previously composed defender at Liverpool: "I don't think that formation suited Babb, who has always looked more comfortable in the middle of a flat back four. It didn't help that other senior players at Liverpool were struggling at the time, and the end product was that Phil began to lose confidence." Injury disrupted Babb's progress in the following season but he was back in the first 11 from January 1998 onwards. Houllier gave him a chance after he took sole control of the club in the 1998/99 season but he struggled to recapture the form that prompted Roy Evans to sign him for the club. Babb was at the centre of the most painful and yet hilarious incident in Anfield’s history on 4 October 1998. He attacked the post in front of the Anfield Road stand with brute force unsuccessfully trying to prevent Pierluigi Casiraghi‘s first goal for Chelsea in a 1-1 draw . Babb’s privates came off the worst, prompting one fan to shout while Babb was lying there holding his manhood. ‘Don’t rub them Phil, count them!’
The writing was on the wall for Babb when he was left out of a weekend tournament in Belfast in July 1999 and the arrival of Hyypia and Henchoz in the summer of 1999 effectively made him a spectator in his last year at the club. He was loaned for one month to John Aldridge's Tranmere in late January and helped Rovers to the League Cup final. He made a surprise move to Sporting Lisbon where he enjoyed a revival of some sorts and enjoyed his football again for two years, winning the League and Cup double in his second season and voted the league's top overseas defender. Sporting offered him a new contract but he and his family wanted a return to England. He opted for Peter Reid's Sunderland in the summer of 2002 but was relegated from the Premiership in his first season and spent one year in the First Division before retiring from the game that had given him so many highs and lows.