Joe Cole, the Kop saviour?
Joe Cole’s signing for Liverpool is being considered a life line for the Liverpool Football Club as they are looking to put their last season’s dismal performance aside and carry on with their search for their first ever English Premier League title.
The Liverpool squad is also not looking strong enough to pose a real challenge to their title rivals at the moment, but Cole’s inclusion is definitely a big step in the right direction. Although the future of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres is far from certain, the trio would join together to make up arguably the most talented attacking threat in the English league.
The established English players in the EPL are now a rare commodity and it will be a luxury for Liverpool to have two of them on their side. But is this move more useful for Liverpool or the player himself?
There is no doubt that Liverpool badly needed this signing but this new phase will be as important in Cole’s life as it would to the club. Cole is the product of the famous academy of West Ham United which has produced a number of exceptional players for English football.
Among the recent ones are Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Jermain Defoe and Michael Carrick. Cole was touted as the best young English talent after Michael Owen and was the hottest property in England before attention turned towards Wayne Rooney. Cole once scored seven goals in an 8-1 youth international win over Spain, the same generation which is now the crowned champions of the world. Cole also went on to skipper his boyhood club West Ham at the tender age of 21.
The German legend Franz Beckenbauer recently said that the poor performance by the English national team in the 2010 World Cup was down to their “kick and rush” style of play which has become so normal in the English league. To such an extent that less emphasis is given to building the technique showcased by the young players and more of their training is composed of 'how to build a strong physique'.
Cole definitely gained from the technical style of play, because he is one of the current English players who benefited from training before thus new style evolved. He is thus technically sound and his game play is less dependent on his physical aspect.
Technique and talent has always been present within his, but Cole was never given enough opportunity at Chelsea, who signed him in 2003 in the very first phase of arrivals in the Roman Abramovich era.
The number of titles he has won during his stay at Chelsea overshadow how less he has played during this period. He won two Premier League titles, one FA Cup, two League Cups but only played 44% of the league minutes Chelsea played from 2003 to 2010. He has only made 28 starts from the possible 76 (37%) league matches in the last two seasons.
Where on one side, his Chelsea teammate Frank Lampard is making Premier League records of 164 consecutive league appearances, Cole has only been able to make 179 appearances for Chelsea in his seven year spell.
Cole has rejected Champions League football in the form of offers from Arsenal and Tottenham and instead chose for the second-tier Europa League with Liverpool. Cole also missed the chance to join with Harry Redknapp at Tottenham Hotspur who offered Cole to join the West Ham academy and then the first team squad.
Some may argue that Cole has opted for a lucrative deal at Liverpool which could not be matched by the London clubs Arsenal and Tottenham. But the fact is that only Liverpool can give him the right kind of stage he needs to fulfil his early promise. He has been given the number 10 shirt by his new boss Roy Hodgson. And this shows that he is being considered a very important part of the Liverpool revival. Liverpool fans would hope that Roy can identify the best system and positions for Cole, Gerrard and Torres.
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