When Joe Cole shook hands with Shaka Hislop before the kick-off in Nuremberg on Thursday he thought back to the time, getting on for a decade ago, when they were teammates at Upton Park and the Trinidad & Tobago goalkeeper, already an experienced professional, helped to ease the English prodigy’s youthful anxieties.
”Shaka was a diamond for me when I was coming through at West Ham,” Cole said this week. ”He was like an old head on … well, on old shoulders. He made me feel welcome when I got into the first-team squad and he used to look after me a lot. He’s a top man. Whoever you ask in football will tell you that Shaka’s a great guy.”
On Saturday, a few hours after England’s laboured victory over Paraguay, the 37-year-old Hislop became the hero of his islands when a string of courageous saves helped secure a goalless draw against Sweden. ”I was pleased for him,” Cole continued. ”He had a great game and it was great for him because he’s had a long career and to go to the World Cup with his country is a marvellous thing.”
Such generosity towards a fellow professional is characteristic of the 24-year-old north Londoner, as is the honest admission that there have been times when he needed an arm round his shoulders. As a schoolboy starlet with a repertoire of dazzling tricks he grew up feeling the pressure of other people’s ambitions for him.
Eventually he became the victim of his own ability, seemingly condemned to search for a role in an English game that continues to look with suspicion upon virtuosity when it is accompanied by the slightest hint of vulnerability.
A modest and enthusiastic character, Cole has been subjected to criticism, well-meaning and otherwise, for so long that it has turned him off the whole notion of becoming a star. Glenn Roeder, whom he cites as the most profound influence on his professional career, recognised his wholeheartedness and altruism when he gave the 20-year-old the captain’s armband during what turned out to be West Ham’s relegation season.
Since then two years of discipline under Jose Mourinho at Chelsea plus a desire to turn a patchy international career into something more substantial have led him to the conclusion that individual acclaim is a false goal.
On Saturday he was identified by many foreign observers as England’s sole source of creativity in open play. ”He has a real capacity for acceleration and always the hope of bringing others into play,” L’Equipe wrote. ”It’s a shame that his teammates weren’t able to take advantage of it.”
But when it was put to him that this World Cup could finally bring him the international recognition so confidently predicted when he was in his teens, he politely deflected the compliment.
”That would be great,” he said. ”But the mentality is that I don’t necessarily want to be a star. People were pushing me to be a star and really I just want to play my football and help England win a few games. If I can do that, I’ll be happy.
”There have been expectations on me from a young age. People wanted me to be a world-class player at 17 or 18, when I came into the side. I was [7kg] lighter than I am now, I was still a boy and I had a lot to learn in the game. I’ve learnt a lot but I’ve learnt everything in the public eye and under the scrutiny of everyone. I’ve had a lot of criticism but I never lost the hope than eventually I’d be playing for England at the World Cup.
”No disrespect to anyone but I don’t listen to fans, media or my friends. I listen to people like Jose, Glenn Roeder and Sven-Goran Eriksson, people who I feel I can learn from. Everyone’s got an opinion and you can’t please everyone, so you’ve got to look at the people around you.
”I’ve looked at players like David Beckham, [Marcel] Desailly, [Juan Sebastian] Veron and [Paolo] Di Canio. I’ve tried to learn from them and not listen to what anyone else says. Whatever’s happened, I’ve always tried to train hard and get better. And now I just want to help the team do something special.”
In the early part of his career it was assumed that Cole’s touch and vision would lead him to maturity as a classic No 10. Fate and the English game have carried him in other directions, but on Saturday there was a glimpse of his playmaking ability when, having removed Michael Owen, Eriksson moved him into the position behind the main striker, until tactical necessities led to Cole’s own withdrawal.
”I’ve played as a winger for the last two years,” he said, ”on the right wing for Chelsea and left midfield for England. Now I just like to think of myself as a footballer. But I do enjoy playing behind the strikers, or off one striker, and I’d like to have done it [against Paraguay] when I had a bit more left in the tank, because it was about 100F on that pitch and the last 20 or 30 minutes were real tough.”
Cole seemed to suffer less than most but recognised that running out of steam is a familiar England problem.
”In Japan we didn’t do well in the second halves,” he said. ”I know the fans were getting frustrated against Paraguay because the English mentality is always to go forward, but there’s some games when you’re trying to hold on to a lead and maybe you need to slow things down.
”The tempo we started with would have been hard to keep up for 90 minutes. I’m not going to make excuses for the second half but it was a fighting performance and we got the job done.” — Â