Cole thoughts on Osgood and West Brom alone
Friday, Mar 03, 2006
One of the top entertainers in the current Chelsea team began his look forward to Saturday?s game at West Bromwich Albion by reflecting on one of the great Chelsea entertainers off all-time.
Despite his man-of-the-match performance for England on Wednesday, for Joe Cole, the death of Peter Osgood has cast a shadow over the week.
?He is a legend, not only to the current players but to everyone at Chelsea,? Joe said in tribute.
?He was still very much part of it and was always at the games. He always had a positive thing to say about everyone and is going to be missed dearly, especially by the English players who spoke to him often.?
Cole, brought up in a London family who kept an eye out for Chelsea, is fully aware of the Osgood legacy.
?My uncles and grandparents used to speak about him all the time. Obviously I didn?t get to see him play but on video clips you can see what an exceptional player he was. I only knew him as a man and as a man he was top draw. He is a tragic loss to the club. Our thoughts are with his family.?
On Saturday lunchtime Chelsea have the no small task of earning three points at The Hawthorns. In recent years West Brom have been generous in this respect, losing all five of the Premiership meetings between the sides. The Baggies have big need for points too, standing just one place and three points above the relegation zone.
?It will be a very physical game,? reckons Cole, ?but as we have shown before, we won?t be phased by that. They were in a similar league position last season and I am sure with a manager like Bryan Robson, they are going to be fighting and all together. It is going to be tough game.?
A tough game just three days before the massive night in Barcelona?s Camp Nou. A distraction?
?No danger!? Cole insists. ?Because we have the right players with the right attitude. We have shown that lots of times this season when we have been under pressure and had to get results. We have done well and the 12 point advantage we have at the top, we want to keep that and not let anybody get near us.
?We know we have not been playing as well as we can. We have not had fantastic results, we have had good results and some average ones over the last week or two. We just want to get back to winning consistently, starting with tomorrow.?
Voilà , j'ai la flemme de traduire