FA PREMIER LEAGUE Chelsea v Tottenham: ASK AROUND about Joe Cole and the view is unanimous: he is as talented as any English footballer.
The boy from north London was practically born juggling a ball and, according to Harry Redknapp, the pavements and roads of Camden Town, the area where he lived from six years old, were his formative training ground.
“I used to say to Joe, ‘How did you learn to control a ball so well?’ When he was 11 he did things with a ball I’ve never seen in my life. He said, ‘I dribble a ball to school every day,’” recalls Redknapp, Cole’s manager at West Ham and who will take his Tottenham team to Stamford Bridge tomorrow, when Cole is expected to be on the bench.
Redknapp vividly recalls the day Cole offered notice he had grown up. “He came to training one day when he was 15. It was on the Friday morning at Chadwell Heath, we were going to Everton the next day, and he joined in a nine-a-side. His team won 3-2 and David Unsworth and the players said to me, ‘Can’t he play tomorrow?’ He just wants to play football. When he was 10, 11, you couldn’t get him away from a football.”
Cole has spent the last eight months having to endure a painful separation from his beloved sport.
He has been forced to watch as Chelsea under Guus Hiddink and now Carlo Ancelotti have evolved without him, with last season’s FA Cup being claimed and this year’s campaign starting with six wins from their opening six games.
England, too, have also moved on since Cole suffered a cruciate ligament injury against Southend United in an FA Cup tie during January, before his absence was prolonged by a further tear to the knee in the summer, causing the midfielder to miss the vital weeks of pre-season.
In a World Cup year no premium-class player wants to be forgotten. With Steven Gerrard being accommodated in Cole’s usual position on the left and Ancelotti employing a narrow diamond, the 27-year-old was relieved to be involved in the first-team squad for the first time for eight months on Tuesday, in the 1-0 win over Porto. Ancelotti plans to make Cole, who is in the final year of his contract, a vital part of his plans.
“We want to prepare him to stay well for the Carling Cup on Wednesday,” the Italian says of the meeting with Queens Park Rangers, when Cole may start.
“We have to improve his physical condition. I think Joe Cole is a very important player. He has a lot of technical quality and we need this quality. He’s an English player and knows very well the atmosphere in the team. He’s well-respected by the other players. If he stays (fit), and I think he will, he’s an important player for us.”
Which position Cole is selected for will have interesting implications for his long-term club and international career. Frank Lampard has been deployed by Ancelotti this season at the tip of the diamond, the position Cole has coveted throughout his career.
It is conceivable that Lampard’s flexibility may allow Ancelotti to move him to the left or right and allow Cole to play behind Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka.
But apart from Florent Malouda, Chelsea have few other specialist attacking wide players, and they have appeared too narrow on occasion this season. So his ability to dribble suggests Ancelotti may ask him to operate close to the touchline.
The will to return and prosper was evident in Cole’s response to a first week back training earlier this month. “Eight months out is a long time and I was a bit sluggish here and there. But it is just good to be back.”
Guardian Service
