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Joe Cole is a Chelsea icon. Seven years at Stamford Bridge saw Cole win it all, aside from the Champions League trophy, but it could have turned out very different.
Having been relegated from West Ham at the end of the 2002-03 season, Cole joined the new Chelsea under Roman Abramovich. He joined in the same summer as Juan Sebastian Veron and Hernan Crespo.
Some huge names arrived at Chelsea in Abramovich’s first year as the club’s owner. Aged just 22, Cole would go on to play 50 games in all competitions for the Blues that season, having a hand in 10 goals.
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But it could have been very different. Speaking openly on Adebayo Akinfenwa’s Beast Mode On podcast, Cole explains how Chelsea wanted him to join Spartak Moscow on loan for his first year at Chelsea.
Cole could have joined Spartak Moscow in his first season
The now-Chelsea legend says that, given the number of players being signed by Abramovich, Cole’s Dad was asked if his son would like to go on loan to the Russian giants. His Dad immediately turned it down.
“I’ll tell you a story, I don’t even know if this is out there. My Dad told me this years later, because it was a mental time. They’ve obviously gone, Veron can play there, we’ll get the best young players in England.
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“Glen Johnson, Damien Duff, myself, no thought of where we’re going. So they said to my Dad, does he want to go on loan to Spartak Moscow? My Dad went, ‘he ain’t going on loan to Spartak Moscow’.
“My old man went, ‘he’ll be in your first team, don’t worry about that’. They spoke to my agent and said shall we tell him that. Because he’s signed now, and they said don’t say that. I played 50 times that year.”
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After clocking up 50 appearances in his first season for Chelsea, Cole would go on to play a whopping 282 times in all competitions for the Blues. In that time, he was involved in 86 goals for the Londoners.
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Three Premier League titles, two FA Cups, two League Cups, a Community Shield, and a painful defeat to Man United on penalties in the Champions League final followed. Cole is a modern-day Chelsea stalwart.
The 56-time England star would go on to join Liverpool, Lille, Aston Villa, Coventry, and then Tampa Bay Rowdies as injury finally caught up with him. He might have been an icon in Russia, but for his Dad.
These days, of course, Cole is operating as a pundit for TNT Sports and hosts a podcast alongside his old Chelsea pals Wayne Bridge and Carlton Cole. Often, Cole is seen as a spokesperson for Chelsea’s fans.
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