Joe Cole

[MarkM]

Imagine if we'd have the internet years ago. Post from 1980- Can't believe we sold fans favourite and prolific goal scorer last year Andy Gray, and now we've bought that journey man Peter Withe, sack Saunders.
Post from 1989- Can't believe we've bought that cripple from Man United Paul McGrath, past his best and will never be fit enough, sack Taylor.

Not having a go at you, cannock villa, but every single time there is a contentious signing, someone rolls that one out.

Well we're all pundits. If you go back through these pages there'll be posters heralding the signings of N'Zogbia and Ireland and slamming the spunking of £7million on some unknown Belgian kid. Time will tell with Cole as with every other signing whether it was a good move or not.

I hope not too much time, he hasn't got that much left!

[john e]

Imagine if we'd have the internet years ago. Post from 1980- Can't believe we sold fans favourite and prolific goal scorer last year Andy Gray, and now we've bought that journey man Peter Withe, sack Saunders.
Post from 1989- Can't believe we've bought that cripple from Man United Paul McGrath, past his best and will never be fit enough, sack Taylor.

Not having a go at you, cannock villa, but every single time there is a contentious signing, someone rolls that one out.

Well we're all pundits. If you go back through these pages there'll be posters heralding the signings of N'Zogbia and Ireland and slamming the spunking of £7million on some unknown Belgian kid. Time will tell with Cole as with every other signing whether it was a good move or not.

I hope not too much time, he hasn't got that much left!

True, I thought Helenius was going to be the next best thing this time last year

[PeterWithesShin]

Imagine if we'd have the internet years ago. Post from 1980- Can't believe we sold fans favourite and prolific goal scorer last year Andy Gray, and now we've bought that journey man Peter Withe, sack Saunders.
Post from 1989- Can't believe we've bought that cripple from Man United Paul McGrath, past his best and will never be fit enough, sack Taylor.

Not having a go at you, cannock villa, but every single time there is a contentious signing, someone rolls that one out.

Well we're all pundits. If you go back through these pages there'll be posters heralding the signings of N'Zogbia and Ireland and slamming the spunking of £7million on some unknown Belgian kid. Time will tell with Cole as with every other signing whether it was a good move or not.

True. For all the "we should never have signed him without a manager" stuff we heard about Ireland the last couple of years for example, look at his signing thread, the majority were delighted with him and thought we had mugged Man City.

I also thought Beye would be a useful signing. Experienced in the league, decent ability, could play anywhere at the back = good addition. Oooops.

[silhillvilla]

Sounds to me like we will be building a team around Cole. Could be interesting .

[ozzjim]

What do we do in the 20 games he misses through injury?

[pauliewalnuts]

Imagine if we'd have the internet years ago. Post from 1980- Can't believe we sold fans favourite and prolific goal scorer last year Andy Gray, and now we've bought that journey man Peter Withe, sack Saunders.
Post from 1989- Can't believe we've bought that cripple from Man United Paul McGrath, past his best and will never be fit enough, sack Taylor.

Not having a go at you, cannock villa, but every single time there is a contentious signing, someone rolls that one out.

Well we're all pundits. If you go back through these pages there'll be posters heralding the signings of N'Zogbia and Ireland and slamming the spunking of £7million on some unknown Belgian kid. Time will tell with Cole as with every other signing whether it was a good move or not.

I didn't mean that we get things wrong, so much that those two signings get rolled out - the implication being that sometimes signings which look highly unlikely to work out, do work out very well.

Given that the first of them was 35 years ago, and the second 25 years ago, two examples in that sort of time frame renders it a pretty meaningless comparison.

[rob_bridge]

What do we do in the 20 games he misses through injury?

Hope it coincides with the 15-20 when NZogbia isn't?

[pauliewalnuts]

What do we do in the 20 games he misses through injury?

Exactly, whether or not he does well for us when he plays, his injury record suggests it'd be a  bit nuts to base our team around him. Look what happened when Benteke got injured - another player our style of play was largely built around.

[silhillvilla]

What do we do in the 20 games he misses through injury?

Play Grealish ?

[Toronto Villa]

I think he's a solid option to play every so often, come of the bench at times and offer something very different to what we have at the club at the moment. To consider building around him is a bit nuts, but we should be looking for a younger version of Cole that we can build around and have Cole mentor him. At his best Cole was very good, so we need to be wise in how we utilize him.

[Toronto Villa]

If Lambert is still here in August then all I hope Cole represents is a willingness to change how we play. I can't stand what we became and I hope Lambert felt the same way and is doing whatever he can to change that. We showed on occasion that when we try to pass and move we can. This long ball bollocks has to stop.

[placeforparks]

joe cole brings something new on, and off, the pitch. a football brain and some priceless experience. he could have gone elsewhere for bigger wages, he wants to play for aston villa.

we've got an owner trying to flog the club but no-one wants to see us sold hastily to any old tyrant, we've got a manager a lot of fans wanted to see the back off. we've got a very small pot to piss in.

back the manager and back the players who want to play for us. they'll need us next season because we're up against it, from the off.

[IAmTheOneIanOlney]

If Lambert is still here in August then all I hope Cole represents is a willingness to change how we play. I can't stand what we became and I hope Lambert felt the same way and is doing whatever he can to change that. We showed on occasion that when we try to pass and move we can. This long ball bollocks has to stop.

I think this is a good point - the way Cole plays for us may ultimately represent Lambert's abilities as much as his own. Two people with a lot to prove, but evidence of the ability to do it in the past.

I'm hoping the "re" word we see associated with Villa next year is "resurgent" and not "relegation"

[Brend'Watkins]

I want it to be 'resplendent' and 'rejoicing'

[mamuu]

relieved will do me.