Joe Cole: Pure Genius

Most of us witnessed Joe Cole's majestic performance at white hart lane. He joined the Stamford Bridge outfit during the summer that RA Roman Abramovic arrived. He arrived as an immensely talented wonderboy, but was soon turned into a hard-working midfield player by Jose 'the Special One' Mourinho.

Upon Jose's arrival, he immediately took a disliking to Cole and frequently complained about Cole's lack of defensive qualities and he would often leave cole out as a substitute or take him off during games. This resulted in Cole rarely finishing games and was gradually becoming a bit-part player.

Somewhere along the way, Cole decided he was not going to let other players with less talent and quality keep him from playing every 90 minutes. Cole learned to track back, time his tackles, use less trickery, and only use them when affordable. He had trouble mixing his sublime skills with the dirty part of the game, but nonetheless, he was improving as a player, and his progress was there for everyone to see. He suddenly became more of a team player than an indivualist, and more of an asset than a liability.

The man-of-the-match performances started rolling in, and by now he was the fans' darling. But more importantly, the media took a liking towards him—which is vital, as teammate, Lampard, Terry, and Ashley Cole have learned. Those three players have suffered abuse from both media and the fans country-wide.

By the end of Jose's first season, Cole was firmly in the good books with his manager. He was starting every game, and played well throughout the second half of the season where Chelsea eventually ran away with the title (2004-05).

During Jose's second season, Cole was still enjoying playing virtually every minute of every game. By now, he had learned to combine his sublime trickery and tracking back. He began showing a side to him that the whole country knew he would on day be capable of. Joe Cole had grown into a world-class player and nothing was going to stand in his way of a regular place in the England squad.

Cole ended the season on a high note, as Chelsea once again won the title in comfortable fahion. Its worth mentioning the sublime goal he scored in the game against Man United, the game that clinched the title as they were our closest challengers. 

Mourihno's third season didn't start off so well, and Joe was back on the bench. Chelsea had purchased Florent Malouda during the off season, and he was paired with Wright-Phillips on the wings in the first game. When Cole did get manage to get into the side his form was disappointing—but it's also worth noting that by then, the early season hype had disappeared and the whole team was performing poorly.

This led to the early season dismissal of coach Mourinho. Avram Grant was appointed in his place, and he didn't hesitate to restore Cole back to a starting role for the team. While Jose would Cole on the wing, Grant decided to give him a free role—and to no one's surprise, Cole excelled in that role and Chelsea's rise was again back on track.

Grant eventually decided to put Cole back on the wing, as there are too many central midfielders to compete with. To this day, Cole still plays in the wing, whereas he should be playing either as a central midfielder or as supporting role to the strikers. 

Despite this fact, Cole has developed into the best wingers in the country. Although there are still quite a few players better than him that position across Europe, he has made it his own. Cole was left out of the Carling Cup defeat to Spurs and Grant was widely criticised for that. 

To conclude, Joe Cole is a magician. Last night's performance against Spurs supports that claim. Can he fire Chelsea to the title? Well, that I'm not sure about—but he is definitely the one player that Chelsea should try tooth and nail to sign him for good.