The Aston Villa boss, Paul Lambert, has big expectations with his new signing Joe Cole. He believes that the former English player is still capable of competing at the top level.
Cole, who is 32 year old at the moment, has recently signed for Villa. He had actually been offered a big amount of money to join the Major League Soccer, the American league, but, he turned it down.
Not many players especially at this age would have rejected such an offer, but, Cole did it and he got heaps of praise from Lambert for that.
Talking to the reporters a couple of days ago about Cole, Lambert said, “Joe is one of those guys who don’t care about the cash that much. He is just looking to show the world that he has still got what it takes to compete at this level.”
“We were eager to have him not only because he is enormously skilled himself, but, also because he can guide the youngsters around him. He is a fantastic professional and a very soft spoken guy despite the amount of success that he has had so far.”
Cole has played for a couple of top clubs in the premier league before. He has represented the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool and that too for a long period of time. So, he is a wily customer and knows exactly what needs to be done at the highest level to be successful.
The veteran winger had signed for West Ham United, after leaving Liverpool FC, for a solitary season last summer and he did well there in about 30 league games that he played. But, the Hammers didn’t give him a contract extension which converted him into a free agent.