If there’s one player at Chelsea who’s really grown on me over the past year or two, it’s Joe Cole. God knows he’s been asked to prove himself enough times while he’s been at Chelsea, not just overcoming but responding positively to a constant fight for his place as well as a public slagging off from one of his former managers. And yet here he is again, another manager, another fight to prove his worth. But does he whinge and whine like a bitch about it? Not Joe Cole, he just says he’s prepared to fight for a regular spot under yet another manager.
In fact, in spite of recent reports linking him to both Villa and Liverpool, and the unbelievable fact that a player of his quality has to constantly fight for a place, Joe Cole has stated his clear desire to spend the rest of his career at Stamford Bridge. But even better than that is the fact that the midfielder, who’s negotiations to extend his current two-year contract were put on hold by the club until next summer, has made it clear he won’t be holding Chelsea over a barrel when it comes to signing a new deal.
Unlike certain Chelsea players, Cole isn’t interested in dragging a deal out for a couple of years while he considers both his options and offers from elsewhere. For Joe Cole it’s all pretty straight forward really – he just wants to play for the club. Regarding any negotiations, Cole says “I just wanted to put the contract to bed. We wanted to get it sorted this year, but with new players coming and going there wasn’t time. I love it here, the club want to sign me and there won’t be any problems. I suggested that I concentrate on my performances this season because it’s not nice for the fans to have an ongoing thing, but I will be a Chelsea player for the rest of my career.”
Surprisingly, Cole didn’t feature that greatly during Chelsea’s pre-season and yet again doesn’t particularly look like figuring in the manager’s plans, with Scolari clearly keen to bring in Robinho. Not that Joe Cole let that put him off when he was given the opportunity at the weekend. After bagging Chelsea’s first goal at home to Pompey, Cole said “It was nice to score the first goal under Scolari. I was trying to play a bit further up because we have a lot of midfielders who like to play deep. We play five in midfield and I’m the one who likes to run in behind. Everyone worked for each other and we looked like a cohesive unit.”
And still, the resilient midfielder, who’s seen plenty of competition come and go during his five years at the club, is managing to deal with the possibility of yet another ‘replacement’ arriving in the form of Robinho, by again preparing himself to do battle for the honour of a place in the team.
Cole simply says “It’s a way of life at a big club. You come to Chelsea and you have to expect competition. I thrive on it. There are always big-name players at this club and I love competing with them and I love learning from then. It can only make me a better player.”
And it certainly has made him a better player – in fact, exactly the sort of player Chelsea should do everything in their power to keep at the club.
Blue is the colour
