by Adam Bate
Lille may be a long way from Lourdes but the message from Joe Cole is clear – his visit to France has given him a new lease of life.
Cole had cut a forlorn figure at Liverpool but the loan move to Ligue 1 has seen him reinvigorated. Roaming the field with freedom and dribbling past defenders for fun, it is easy to be reminded of the player once hailed as the saviour of English football.
Cole himself appears to cling to this notion and clearly retains international ambitions. When asked if he hoped his performances might catch Fabio Capello’s eye, Cole said: “I see no reason why I won’t get back in the team.”
Sadly for Joe, the history of the English footballer abroad suggests there is every reason to think his hopes of an England swansong could be dashed.
He need only look at his predecessors who have made the short journey across the channel. Much has been made of Cole trying to emulate the remarkable success Chris Waddle enjoyed at Marseille. But as sensational as Waddle was in France, it was not enough to keep Graham Taylor’s attention.
Waddle won three league titles with Marseille as well as reaching a European Cup final and being nominated for the Ballon d’Or. And yet, his efforts were not sufficient to get into Taylor’s England squad ahead of less celebrated wing options such as Tony Daley and Andy Sinton.
And Waddle was not alone. His former England team-mate and occasional singing partner Glenn Hoddle also enjoyed considerable success in the French league with Arsene Wenger’s Monaco.
Hoddle was the second highest scorer in Ligue 1 in the 1988-89 season, scoring 18 goals. But it was not enough to convince Bobby Robson that Hoddle had been reincarnated as a viable goalscoring option capable of playing off the striker.
The feeling is that it can be just too easy to ignore the claims of players overseas. Without regular media exposure, a player’s success can go overlooked while others attract the nation’s attention.
Even a quarter of a century on, Gordon Cowans continues to suspect this played its part in his England career being cut short. The former Bari midfielder was omitted on the eve of the 1986 World Cup in favour of Aston Villa’s Steve Hodge.
Cowans has since said: “It may well have cost me a trip to Mexico in ‘86. I do think if I’d been in England then I’d have gone so perhaps I missed out on some opportunities.”
It’s a sense of frustration echoed by Steve McManaman whose achievement of winning the Champions League twice while playing abroad for Real Madrid remains unparalleled by an English player.
McManaman, speaking before the 2002 World Cup, said: “Of course I think I should be going to the World Cup. I believe in my ability, and that I’m better than others – that’s why I play for Real Madrid.”
It’s a compelling argument. As is the reason for upsetting Sven-Goran Eriksson by refusing to meet up in time for a friendly against Sweden in November 2001- he had to play for Real Madrid against Barcelona that week.
Spanish newspaper AS rated his El Clasico display that night as “perfect” with the editor writing: “It was an ideal game for McManaman, a footballer capable of being everyone’s partner, in the middle, up front, at the back. He gets the side playing all over the pitch”.
But it wasn’t enough to beat West Ham’s Trevor Sinclair to a World Cup berth.
Perhaps McManaman was a victim of the perceptions about him that had been created during his time in English football. But Owen Hargreaves had a quite different problem – he had no reputation whatsoever.
Winning the Champions League with Bayern Munich seemed to count for nothing and he was even booed by England fans. Hargreaves was remarkably phlegmatic saying: “People don’t see me and I can understand that. The fans? They don’t know me.”
Hargreaves did manage to win supporters over after an impressive 2006 World Cup that resulted in him being named England player of the year.
It brought about a peculiar apology from the Mirror’s Oliver Holt, who wrote: “I may have given the mistaken impression that I thought Owen Hargreaves was a waste of space.
“Well, I was too hasty making that judgment. Or misjudgment. I hadn’t seen him play enough. I was wrong.
“The people who pointed out that he couldn’t be a dummy if he’d held down a place at a powerhouse team like Bayern Munich for five years were right.”
You don’t say, Ollie.
Globalisation is here. But make no mistake – Joe Cole will have to buck the trend if he is to force his way back into Capello’s England thoughts.
Is n’t odd how we manage to get good foreign players, often who we have never heard of, from foreign clubs to play here in the premier league. It’s all down to a good scouting system, something that the English national team must not have. All of the players that you mentioned that were playing abroad were better than the ones who ‘got’ their place. Thinking of the ‘Englishman abroad’, David Platt, Gary Lineker, Paul Gascoigne and I suppose David Beckham come to mind but is n’t the memory a funny thing.
I can’t really see how going to Lille can help his England chances, unless he’s pulling up some serious trees, which he doesn’t appear to be thus far.
Not that I don’t admire him for going there of course, this is just thinking about his international prospects.
He’s out of sight and out of mind at Lille. Surely a move to one of the lesser Premiership teams where he could play regularly would have been a smarter move?
Lets face it, Ligue 1is a lesser standard than the Premiership, so even if he does well, can we take this as definitive proof he’s once again capable of performing against the very best?
I just can’t see Capello considering him. I think we have much better options anyway.