The Guardian and The Mirror are today reporting that Spurs are playing the world cup card in a bid to convince Joe Cole to head to the lane. Recent signing Yuri Zhirkov has added to Florence Malouda in Chelski’s list of left wing options and Ballack and Lampard are ahead of Cole in the attacking midfield slot.
Looking at Chelski’s squad though, there is very little in the way of options for the right wing. Kalou can play there but is more of a central attacking player and all their other midfielders are central players too. They will be short of wide creative options if they let Cole go and I think he’ll be looking at the current squad, the injury records of the aging Ballack and Deco and thinking he can get games this year. I’d play Cole ahead of Ballack, Deco and Malouda anyway.
Rumours are though that Chelsea are about to spend some serious wedge and if someone like Ashley Young (who like Cole is right footed but often plays from the left side) is amongst the incoming, Cole could reassess quickly and a Spurs move could materialise.
Lets hope so!
[...] of our other targets have slipped away in recent days. Chelsea moved swiftly to quash any talk of a Spurs move for Joe Cole, Klaas Jan-Huntelaar looks set for a move to AC Milan, Vieira’s “gone all quiet”, Fabian [...]
[...] Joe Cole to Spurs is another persistent rumour. The rumour mongers are telling us it’s World Cup year, he needs to playing, bla bla and so on. We think this is just nonsense, the bloke’s injured! Of course he hasn’t been in the team. The fact is, Chelsea don’t have an embarrassment of riches on the right side of midfield (a position Cole can play in) and don’t have another player like him who can slot in across attacking midfield. Cole will get games, loves Chelsea and this wont happen. [...]