
I suppose the one thing all the press focus on John Terry’s sex-life has done, it’s leave Joe Cole alone for a while.
Prior to the recent revelations about the Chelsea skipper and his sacking as the England captain, we had one ‘story’ after another about the problems surrounding Cole’s contract negotiations and potential links elsewhere. However, with JT seemingly sorting out his marital differences and not much more for the rags to get their teeth into on that front, they’ve returned their attentions to the Chelsea midfielder.
We’d already heard about AC Milan’s apparent interest in Cole this week, although his agent David Geiss didn’t exactly confirm the stories, saying “AC Milan? All I can say is we are talking to Chelsea about a renewal. We’ll see what happens in the coming months. Currently there is no news of any kind.” But with another below par performance from Cole seeing him taken off at half-time yesterday, it’s only served to give the press what they regard as something else to go on.
Ray Wilkins obviously disagrees, insisting “Joe wasn’t injured, it was just a tactical thing. We have a squad full of quality and therefore the manager will change things if he sees fit. We are very fortunate as far as that is concerned. I am not concerned about his form. When you have had a long lay-off like Joe, it really is a shock to the system. But it does take a bit of time to get back into your tip-top form. That will come with Joe. He is working extremely hard day-by-day, so we don’t see any problems there at all.”
Not sure Joe would agree though – lacking fitness, struggling to find his form and he can’t even get 90 minutes against Cardiff in the cup – not ideal with the World Cup coming up this summer.