Player Focus: Cast Aside Cole Has Mourinho to Blame
The return of José Mourinho, The Special One, the messiah, the manager who can do no wrong in the eyes of Chelsea fans, was supposed to be a ‘happy’ homecoming. After 7 different managers and 7 trophies won, a still unsatisfied Roman Abramovich reinstated the Portuguese at the helm, and with him he was supposed to bring the good times back to Stamford Bridge. After a trophyless season and a third-place finish in the Premier League, Mourinho’s first campaign back in English football has not been the return fans would have been hoping for.
The thought of a core of Petr Cech, John Terry, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard rekindling their relationship with the manager that led Chelsea to their only successive Premier League crowns, whilst also teaming up with their latest favourites on the pitch, will have had fans salivating, but it has not quite been the perfect reunion they’d have wanted.
While Terry and Cech have retained an integral status in the team, Lampard has played a bit-part role and two-time player of the season Juan Mata was phased out of the club. Arguably a greater shock, however, has been the pace and extent of the decline of Cole’s use in the first eleven. The left-back has in the space of 10 months gone from England’s first choice and possibly still one of the best in the position on the planet, to without a club and not even in Roy Hodgson’s squad for the World Cup. Few would have foreseen such a fall from grace for the player many consider to have been England’s most consistent performer over the past decade, and at 33 years of age there is certainly something to say for him still having plenty to give.
But until Branislav Ivanovic’s suspension for the first leg of Chelsea’s Champions League semi final against Atlético Madrid, Cole had not played consistently since the turn of the year. Between January and April he didn’t feature at all for the Blues but still started for England in a friendly against Denmark. When called upon for the aforementioned clash with Diego Simeone’s side, however, Cole proved his continued class.
Just 12 minutes of action for the Blues in the months leading up to the match, and the veteran, supposedly considered on the wane by his manager, put in a typically assured and energetic display as his team picked up a clean sheet in the Spanish capital, making 3 tackles, 3 interceptions and playing one of his team’s two key passes. Tireless and tenacious, Cole showed he was certainly still good enough to play at that level. Mourinho must have agreed to an extent, as Cole started each of the Blues’ remaining matches, including
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