Stranger things have happened!
Harry Redknapp is exploring the possibility of bringing Joe Cole to Tottenham Hotspur, the manager hoping to convince the Chelsea midfielder to make the move to further his England hopes in a World Cup year.
Cole has less than 12 months to run on his contract at Stamford Bridge and although the club are keen to prolong the agreement and the player, a boyhood Chelsea fan, is not agitating for a move, other clubs, chief among them Spurs, have scented an opportunity.
Carlo Ancelotti, Chelsea’s manager, intends to play a four-man diamond midfield this season and has said that Cole could feature in the most advanced role or in the wider positions, where he has tended to play under previous regimes. But with Frank Lampard most likely to start at the tip and with the new signing Yuri Zhirkov as well as Florent Malouda, Michael Essien and Michael Ballack providing fierce competition for the wider berths, Cole knows that his chances of being a regular starter have diminished.
They will lessen even further if Ancelotti completes the signing of Andrea Pirlo from his former club Milan. Chelsea have opened talks with the Italian club over the 30-year-old playmaker and it is understood that figures have been discussed. (The Guardian)
The first time I saw news of this potential move it seems fairly unlikely but the more the story gains momentum in the press the more believable it becomes. Carlo Ancelotti on the one hand claims that Joe Cole is a football genius who has a role to play at Stamford Bridge but at the same time it does seem very hard to work out exactly where he will fit into the Italian’s Chelsea set up.
With the World Cup less than a year away Cole wants to make sure he doesn’t miss the boat, so to speak (pretty sure Fabio will have them taking a plane to South Africa), after all the former West Ham man is that rare breed of footballer who actually appears to play better as national level than for his club.
It will be a bitter pill to swallow if the 27 year old with the impossibly hot wife were to have to turn his back on the west London club but perhaps he has no choice. Being out injured for so long does invariably drop you down the pecking order but the Londonder may have thought a new boss may have meant a new start.
I believe Tottenham are going places but let’s not get started on that whole ‘will they/ won’t they’ make the top four argument. Harry Redknapp is a man on a mission and obviously Cole knows him very well from his Hammers days and maybe now is as good a time as any for the White Hart Lane boss to have a word in his shell like?
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