Filed under: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham, West Ham, Euro 2012, Champions League, Premier League, Football, Transfer News, England Football, World Cup 2010
Whatever Liverpool fans think about Joe Cole the fact is that he will be playing Champions League football this season while the only team from another country scheduled for a trip to Anfield any time soon is Swansea City.Just over a year ago, the 29-year-old raised plenty of eyebrows by opting to join Liverpool on a free transfer after the World Cup finals in South Africa, having been jettisoned by Chelsea, when Arsenal and Tottenham had appeared much more likely destinations given that he had never previously been based outside his native London.
Clearly it did not work out for him in a red shirt and the midfielder hardly got a look in once Kenny Dalglish had replaced Roy Hodgson as manager.
This time round he could have stayed in the Premier League by hooking up with Aston Villa but opted instead for a complete change of scenery at OSC Lille, whose Champions League group includes 2010 winners Inter Milan and CSKA Moscow.
Cole has already been pictured clutching his new number 26 shirt for a club that can be easily reached from his native London on the Eurostar railway and it is clear he has arrived there with much to prove.
It's a long, long time since he was hailed as the technically-gifted teenage prodigy who would take the England national team to a new level and, despite having won no fewer than 56 caps, this has not come to pass.
And although he won trophy after trophy with Jose Mourinho at Chelsea more often than not he was the first to be substituted and the tail end of his Stamford Bridge career was blighted by a serious knee injury.
A man who has achieved so much is therefore also regarded as one of the game's great under-achievers and many of those who saw him in his early years as a Hammer are convinced that if only Sir Alex Ferguson had got his hands on him at Manchester United instead of Mourinho then a rare talent could really have flourished. The Scot had been keen to pay top dollar when Cole was still a teeanger but, for whatever reason, it never happened.
For Cole never quite seemed to fit into the rigid structure of English football as he was not quite a winger and not quite an out-and-out forward. Perhaps, then, a stint abroad, where a flair player is not automatically a luxury player, is exactly what he needs.
It is a long time since an England international played in France but Cole will surely know that Chris Waddle another mercurial talent, enjoyed a well-received time there with Marseille when he was exactly the same age. Waddle went on to help England reach the 1990 World Cup semi-finals (where he infamously missed a penalty of course) and left France as the club's second-favourite player of all time in the eyes of the supporters.
And while Cole has a hard task ahead of him to replicate even a portion of that success, getting out of Anfield right now seems a no-brainer, or whatever that is in French.
"I am a winner. It did not work at Liverpool for many reasons and it hurt me," he said. "I like the continental football and it's exciting for me. I love challenges. It's a different playing style and I hope that people in England will watch me play and get more interested in French football."
His departure won't be lamented by Liverpool fans - and he still has another two seasons with them once this one is over - but his failure there is still a disappointment given that Dalglish is currently busy making sure his side has a British spine.
Another midfielder, Christian Poulsen, knows that only too well as the Dane has also been loaned out to a French club, Ligue 1 newcomers Evian. Water under the bridge for him perhaps but Cole still has the opportunity to prove his doubters wrong on the biggest stage in club football.
His departure won't be lamented by Liverpool fans - and he still has another two seasons with them once this one is over - but his failure there is still a disappointment given that Dalglish is currently busy making sure his side has a British spine.
Another midfielder, Christian Poulsen, knows that only too well as the Dane has also been loaned out to a French club, Ligue 1 newcomers Evian. Water under the bridge for him perhaps but Cole still has the opportunity to prove his doubters wrong on the biggest stage in club football.
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