TALK TO Joe Cole off the field and the conversation invariably turns to how he is bursting to get back on to it, how he needs to feel the ball at his feet and wants to show anybody and everybody what he can do. Despite the profile of a leading Premier League player with the millions in the bank, the England midfielder has retained an almost childlike enthusiasm for the game.
There is no worse spectator than Cole, and that is on the days between matches. When he is injured, as he has been for significant chunks of the past 18 months, or is in and out of the team, which was often his lot at Chelsea, he can seem ready to combust. His comments before last season’s FA Cup final were typical. “You can’t get me off the training pitch at the moment, I’ve got so much energy,” he said, having endured a struggle for form and been supplanted in the Chelsea starting XI by Florent Malouda. In the event, Cole only went on for the last 19 minutes of the final against Portsmouth, which was typical for him and prompted yet more irritation. Although he was called in from the international wilderness by Fabio Capello for the World Cup finals, he made only two appearances for England, both as a second-half substitute, against Slovenia and Germany.
Cole can now look ahead to an exciting new challenge. Liverpool have pulled off something of a coup in tempting the Londoner to Anfield – in many respects he is the most attractive free transfer of the summer. Cole has the vision and trickery to light up Anfield but it will be his hunger, the desire to give vent to the frustrations of recent times, that will supply him with drive.
Cole has heard the accusation he has not been the same player since he ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament in the FA Cup at Southend United in January of last year but, then again, he has long had to contend with pressure of the most intense nature and questions about his game.
It seemed Jose Mourinho, the former Chelsea manager, took a perverse delight in criticising Cole for the exuberance of his football and the Portuguese was not the only coach to substitute him regularly. Cole spoke towards the end of last season of having grown weary of looking over his shoulder when the board went up.
It would be churlish to suggest Cole has not justified the hype that accompanied his early years, when Harry Redknapp, his first manager at West Ham United, would constantly receive inquires about his progress and well-being from Alex Ferguson, among others. Now 28, Cole has won three Premier League titles, two FA Cups and two League Cups, and he has 56 England caps.
Cole hopes to find liberation at Anfield in front of a crowd whose passion he has admired from Chelsea’s blue corner and who appear to be on his wavelength. The Kop is sure to appreciate his decision-making in possession and his work-rate.
It remains to be seen where Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson will play him but as long as Steven Gerrard can be retained it seems likely he will start on the left of midfield, the club’s problem area in recent years. In a strange coincidence, Yossi Benayoun, fed up of being a substitute at Anfield under Rafael Benitez, replaced Cole at Chelsea last month.
Cole may have enjoyed another dose of Champions League football in the capital had he opted to sign for Tottenham Hotspur and he would have got it at Arsenal, but he has been drawn to Liverpool for other reasons. Anfield is his kind of stage. The excitement will already be coursing through his body.
Guardian Service
