You can keep your Dele Allis, your Ross Barkleys, your Raheem Sterlings and Adam Lallanas and James Milners and Jack Wilsheres. I want Joe Cole.
Cole, formerly of Chelsea, Aston Villa, Liverpool and West Ham, is one of the few English footballers having a summer you wouldn't describe as "underwhelming." Look at this goal he scored for the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the NASL (the USA's second division for those of you reading this somewhere besides the good ol' USA).
WHAT A GOAL BY JOE COLE! pic.twitter.com/ymaOsVySgQ
— Tampa Bay Rowdies (@TampaBayRowdies) July 17, 2016
Let's go back to the above list of English attacking midfielders. How many of them could to that? Alli, maybe. No one else. Cole has more skill than any of those dudes mentioned above. The England National Team had a lot of trouble breaking teams down at Euro 2016, highlighted by a goalless draw with Slovakia and failing to get a goal when they really needed one against Iceland.
They just didn't have anybody who could make something happen in a tight space. Speaking of making things happen in tight spaces, here's a cool video.
If England were dead-set on bringing a slow-as-hell attacker with them to run the show in France, maybe they should have brought my man Joe Cole instead of Wayne Rooney.
Contact The18 Staff Writer Sam Klomhaus at Klomhaus@The18.com or follow him on Twitter @SamKlomhaus
