Blooming careers: Joe Cole and Michael Carrick were the stars of West Ham's 'golden generation' but, after going their separate ways, will meet again in the FA Cup final
Amy Lawrence
At some point between 'Abide with Me' and the beginning of hostilities under Wembley's Arch, two of the opposing players - one blue, one red - will catch each other's eye and share a private moment that goes back years. In the summer of 1999 Joe Cole and Michael Carrick were part of the West Ham academy team that triumphed in the FA Youth Cup final with a record 9-0 aggregate win. They were friends who lived in the same Romford cul-de-sac, loved their football and were lucky enough to have savoured 'cup fever' before they were old enough to buy a celebratory drink in the pub.
Coventry were their victims in the final and the second leg produced indelible memories. A boisterous crowd of 24,000 came to Upton Park, much larger than anticipated, and a fair few ended up spilling on to the edge of the pitch as Cole, Carrick and their teenage team-mates put on an exhibition. "It was like the White Horse Final!" says West Ham's academy director, Tony Carr. Harry Redknapp, manager at the time, had been to every game of the Youth Cup run to cast his eye over the club's starlets. 'The kids looked so fantastic, you could only see good times ahead,' he recalls. "We had only opened three sides of Upton Park for the second leg and suddenly there were thousands flooding in. We had won 3-0 at Coventry and then to win 6-0 at home was an incredible achievement. Chris Kirkland was in goal for them and I felt a bit sorry for him."
Picking out the likeliest lads to make it from that team was no mean feat. As it happens, only two have completed the ascent to the very top level. A few fell by the wayside. Some are plying their trade in the lower leagues. Izzy Iriekpen, captain of the class of 1999, is now at Swansea. Goalkeeper Stephen Bywater is hoping to return to the Premiership with Derby. Adam Newton is a regular with Peterborough. Richard Garcia, one of two Australians in the side - he scored in every round - has been helping Colchester to mount their unexpected, ultimately unsuccessful promotion bid. His compatriot Michael Ferrante went back home via a spell in Serie C in Italy, and earlier this year was released from his contract by Melbourne Victory. "The rest of us never stood a chance," Garcia admitted recently.
In football, the difference between nearly and really making the big time can be down to fractions. The fraction of extra speed, or touch, or imagination, or drive and desire to improve. The fraction of better luck with injuries. Cole was the one identified as a certainty by most of those in the know. Redknapp oversaw that period of rich development at West Ham when, in successive years, many future international players emerged: first Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard, then Jermain Defoe and Glen Johnson, and finally Cole and Carrick. He remembers the first time he caught sight of Joe Cole, a whippersnapper with mesmerising skills. "I first saw Joe when he was 11," Redknapp says. "It doesn't seem like five minutes ago but he was 11 years of age out there on the pitch at Chadwell Heath playing against Norwich on a muddy day. After about 10 minutes we couldn't believe what we were watching. This kid was doing things which really were a different class. "Bloody Hell," I thought. "Where's his dad?"'
One of the coaches pointed him out and Redknapp recognised him, as he had overheard him saying that his lad was not going to join West Ham. But Redknapp, being expert at sealing a deal, made an effort to change George Cole's mind. "George, Joe's dad, ended up being fantastic. He stuck with us. Joe was going up to Man United, having a look round at Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, everywhere. We let him do it because I felt if we said, "You're not going," his dad would have said, "No, he does what he wants". I thought the only way to handle it was to give him the freedom and Joe ended up loving it at West Ham. His progress just continued. I don't think there was ever a time when you looked at him and thought he was standing still. He always had the ball, was always playing football. Just a natural. From 11 he was very, very special and it has continued from there."
Cole's reputation, while he was still polishing boots, developed extraordinarily quickly. Before he had even established himself in West Ham's first team he had inspired banner headlines and was being compared to Diego Maradona and Pele. The tale of Sir Alex Ferguson asking about his progress every time he spoke to Redknapp only added to the aura around this prodigy. His team-mates, regularly left awestruck on the training ground, nicknamed him 'the conjuror'. Kevin Keegan, England manager at the time, could not rein in his excitement, placing Cole top of his list of teenagers. "I put him first because there is a shortage of that type of player," he said. "He's a Gascoigne-type player. He can make things happen, hold things up, let the ball run. Sometimes you look at him and think, "How do you do that?" And then you realise it's just talent and feeling. What he can do is tremendous."
Young Cole remained amazingly level-headed. Relieved of his apprenticeship chores ahead of schedule because he was pushed into the first-team squad while he was still eligible to defend the FA Youth Cup, he never allowed his ego to mushroom. Cole spent a couple of years at Lilleshall, the FA's centre of excellence until it was closed a few years ago to make way for the ill-fated project at Burton. There he was taught life skills as well as football techniques and had a few hard knocks, but it was a solid family life more than any lessons that has kept him easy going. "He's got no side to him," says Redknapp. "He's just a nice lad and nothing bothers him. He's obsessed by football. He's focused. His mum and dad will keep him right. George is pretty strict. Joe's temperament is pretty bullet-proof and he just loves the game. He's like a little kid who always wants to be out there with a football. If he gets the breaks there's no doubt he'll go right to the top."
Carrick was more of a slow burner. For a start, neither his football style nor his personality were as extrovert as Cole's. He was brave, though, choosing to uproot from his native north-east at the age of 15 to try his luck in the capital. A product of the famous Wallsend Boys Club, which counts Alan Shearer and Peter Beardsley as graduates, he made his decision partly because Newcastle - then managed by Keegan - disbanded their reserve team, thus closing the main avenue for aspiring young Geordies. Carrick thought: "I've no chance of coming through here," and chose West Ham because their academy was fruitful and their welcome was warm. "It was a big move at the time but it was the right thing to do and I had to do it," Carrick recalls.
"At first it was hard. London, compared to Newcastle, is so much busier, quicker, bigger, like. I moved into digs with a couple of Australians who were in the same boat as me so we all looked after each other. After a couple of months I felt settled, and soon it was a home from home." His seriousness did set him apart from some of the other lads, however. That and the fact that when he phoned his folks back in Newcastle and his accent intensified none of the other boys could understand a word he was saying. Garcia, one of those Australians, remembers him as well behaved. "He never did anything wrong. He was a bit boring, really. When all the boys went out on the town he would just sit in the corner acting sensibly while the rest of us got drunk. Mind you, that's because he was on the verge of breaking into the first team at the time. The rest of us never stood a chance. "That's not to say Michael can't drink. It's just that he's totally professional. He's Mr Dependable. Always has been, always will be. Alex Ferguson will never have any trouble from him. He has always been ambitious and believes playing for United will improve his international hopes. He has always wanted to play at the highest level - for both club and country."
According to Redknapp, Carrick's difficulty at the start was mainly physical, and his development was hampered to the extent that he lost almost two seasons to injuries. "Michael was like a skeleton, he outgrew his strength. He suddenly shot up by eight inches and couldn't get around the pitch any more. He could pass the ball but couldn't run. He had problems with his knees because he grew too quickly. But once he grew there was never any doubt." Having Cole in the same age group was a blessing of sorts for Carrick in the early days. As well as their kinship, the frenzy around Cole gave Carrick the breathing space to develop at a gentler pace. "He took all the pressure off me," recalls Carrick. "I had a handful of games in the first team without anyone knowing much about me. Whereas with Joe, from his first game, there was so much attention because everyone had heard of him. He had all this expectation to live up to whereas whatever I achieved was a bonus. He bore the brunt of it. The way he coped with it all was amazing. He just took it all in his stride."
When Cole and Carrick first broke into the West Ham first team, they entered a dressing room full of experienced players. Paolo Di Canio, Frederic Kanoute, veteran model pros such as Shaka Hislop, Stuart Pearce and Nigel Winterburn, Croatia World Cup bronze medallists Igor Stimac and Davor Suker, and internationals Rigobert Song, Trevor Sinclair and Steve Lomas. Pearce made a particularly strong impression. Carrick recalls: "He helped us an awful lot, especially being just behind us on the field, he talked us through all the time, telling us what to do and where to go. Then after the game he discussed what went on. He's that type of character. He's boisterous - and if you're not doing it right he lets you know. He almost wants to fight if you've done something wrong."
Lomas recalls how comfortably the young pair slotted into first-team life - although one needed a little more encouragement than the other. "I'm delighted for both of them because they were two great kids who were fantastic to have around," the Northern Ireland stalwart remembers. "Coley was training with us from the age of 15 and he was obviously so talented. But you can see how the move to Chelsea has enhanced him as a player. Joe probably more than anyone under Jose Mourinho has come on. At times Mourinho was very hard with him, but he has gone from the situation where nobody knew his best position to a guy Chelsea have missed terribly this season. Michael was different. I was always saying to him, "Michael, show more". He had so much in his locker but he's the sort of bloke who needs the stage. He stayed at West Ham when we went down, but he's that quiet and unassuming he maybe stayed a bit too long. He needed to push on, and Totenham gave him the Premier League stage again and he improved with Martin Jol."
Carrick was the last of West Ham's big names to leave following the club's relegation in 2003. After one season outside the top flight, he felt compelled to leave. "The truth is I didn't feel I could play First Division football much longer," he admitted and the move across London to White Hart Lane enabled him, as Lomas always said, to show more. The transfer to Manchester United two years later was not an outrageous surprise, but the size of the fee - pounds 18.6million, a profit of more than pounds 15m for Totenham - was an eye-opener. "People were saying he was overrated and overpriced but they don't say that any more," Lomas says. "Now everyone can see what a good player he is and there is more to come."
Cole and Carrick made their England debuts in the same match. They were both still in their teens when they were called from the substitutes' bench by Sven-Goran Eriksson to play most of the second half of a 4-0 friendly win against Mexico at Pride Park, in May 2001. In the long run, Cole's versatility made him the most reasonable choice to take control of the vacant left midfield berth. But it has been harder for Carrick to cement a place in the international side because of the eternal Steven Gerrard-Frank Lampard problem that has bewildered recent England managers. Trying to fit both into the team naturally reduces Carrick's opportunities, but his performances for United as this season has progressed have enhanced his case. It will be interesting to see how he develops if, as expected, his England team-mate Owen Hargreaves arrives at Old Trafford.
It has been a season of discovery for Carrick. He had to learn to express himself on a stage as massive as Old Trafford and in the No 16 shirt, previously that of Roy Keane. He has had to disprove the doubters who baulked at the transfer fee and questioned his capacity to force the best out of his ability. "It was never a case of thinking that I had to do certain things to pay back the club or justify the price," he argues. "I never lay there at night wondering whether I could cope. To me this move seemed like a natural progression."
At both West Ham and Totenham he occasionally faced the charge that he is too laid-back, his easy personality preventing him from reaching a phase of consistent excellence. "Being laid-back is my nature in some ways, and that's the way I play the game. You can't change my personality," he says. United fans are coming round to Carrick's style and beginning to admire the way he has become a pivotal performer. Two sumptuous goals in United's 7-1 mauling of Roma in the Champions League quarter-finals exemplified a new willingness to express himself further forward as well as direct traffic from the heart of midfield. His old friend Cole has endured a more troublesome season, having been sidelined for most of the first nine weeks of the season and then for four months from November. His absence in a strange way enhanced his status. He was conspicuous by the vacuum he left in terms of Chelsea's verve and the impact he made on his return in Valencia in the Champions League was striking.
Cole was always popular with the Stamford Bridge crowd from the moment he followed Frank Lampard across London for what now seems a bargain pounds 6.6m in the summer of 2003, at the end of a season in which he captained West Ham at the age of 21. Nevertheless, it took a couple of seasons during which he was 'rotated' and erratic until he was really able to flourish. There had been talk of a loan move to CSKA Moscow, but he vowed to stick it out and fight for his place. Mourinho's demanding work ethic has channelled Cole's potential to the extent that he has become a key player at Chelsea. The turning point was in the Portuguese manager's first season, when Cole scored the match-winner against Liverpool, only to find himself on the end of a tongue-lashing afterwards as Mourinho slated Cole to the press, accusing him of neglecting his defensive duties. The player quipped that he had a season ticket to the manager's office at one point.
Being the conscientious sort, he chose to absorb the lesson rather than sulk. "I always take on board what the boss says to me and I learn from it," Cole acknowledged. "We are on the same page. He wants Chelsea to win games and I want Chelsea to win games. He wants Joe Cole to be a better player than he already is - and so do I. I have always taken criticism well and it wasn't massive criticism in my eyes. We both want to make me a better player for Chelsea and if that is the end result then that is all that matters. It hurt when people said I was showing off. All I like to do is put a smile on fans' faces as part of the side. What people must appreciate is I have had this attention since I was 16 at West Ham. The expectancy was enormous then and hasn't changed."
Cole and Carrick are still close. When they meet at Wembley they will be able to share how far they have journeyed since their boyish escapades in claret and blue. Even though they are in direct competition now they can empathise with the fact they are competing at the sharpest of sharp ends. As their old West Ham team-mate Lomas points out, "They have to perform under the spotlight every week now. At clubs like Manchester United and Chelsea, if you're not performing you're out."
As for Redknapp, he may have left West Ham years ago but he remains fiercely proud of the club's golden generation. In a short period they produced six future England internationals. Four of them - Ferdinand, Lampard, Carrick and Cole - will be at Wembley on Saturday for the FA Cup final. "And all four were in the Champions League semi-finals," he hastens to add. "The only pity is they don't all play for West Ham!"
Amy Lawrence
At some point between 'Abide with Me' and the beginning of hostilities under Wembley's Arch, two of the opposing players - one blue, one red - will catch each other's eye and share a private moment that goes back years. In the summer of 1999 Joe Cole and Michael Carrick were part of the West Ham academy team that triumphed in the FA Youth Cup final with a record 9-0 aggregate win. They were friends who lived in the same Romford cul-de-sac, loved their football and were lucky enough to have savoured 'cup fever' before they were old enough to buy a celebratory drink in the pub.
Coventry were their victims in the final and the second leg produced indelible memories. A boisterous crowd of 24,000 came to Upton Park, much larger than anticipated, and a fair few ended up spilling on to the edge of the pitch as Cole, Carrick and their teenage team-mates put on an exhibition. "It was like the White Horse Final!" says West Ham's academy director, Tony Carr. Harry Redknapp, manager at the time, had been to every game of the Youth Cup run to cast his eye over the club's starlets. 'The kids looked so fantastic, you could only see good times ahead,' he recalls. "We had only opened three sides of Upton Park for the second leg and suddenly there were thousands flooding in. We had won 3-0 at Coventry and then to win 6-0 at home was an incredible achievement. Chris Kirkland was in goal for them and I felt a bit sorry for him."
Picking out the likeliest lads to make it from that team was no mean feat. As it happens, only two have completed the ascent to the very top level. A few fell by the wayside. Some are plying their trade in the lower leagues. Izzy Iriekpen, captain of the class of 1999, is now at Swansea. Goalkeeper Stephen Bywater is hoping to return to the Premiership with Derby. Adam Newton is a regular with Peterborough. Richard Garcia, one of two Australians in the side - he scored in every round - has been helping Colchester to mount their unexpected, ultimately unsuccessful promotion bid. His compatriot Michael Ferrante went back home via a spell in Serie C in Italy, and earlier this year was released from his contract by Melbourne Victory. "The rest of us never stood a chance," Garcia admitted recently.
In football, the difference between nearly and really making the big time can be down to fractions. The fraction of extra speed, or touch, or imagination, or drive and desire to improve. The fraction of better luck with injuries. Cole was the one identified as a certainty by most of those in the know. Redknapp oversaw that period of rich development at West Ham when, in successive years, many future international players emerged: first Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard, then Jermain Defoe and Glen Johnson, and finally Cole and Carrick. He remembers the first time he caught sight of Joe Cole, a whippersnapper with mesmerising skills. "I first saw Joe when he was 11," Redknapp says. "It doesn't seem like five minutes ago but he was 11 years of age out there on the pitch at Chadwell Heath playing against Norwich on a muddy day. After about 10 minutes we couldn't believe what we were watching. This kid was doing things which really were a different class. "Bloody Hell," I thought. "Where's his dad?"'
One of the coaches pointed him out and Redknapp recognised him, as he had overheard him saying that his lad was not going to join West Ham. But Redknapp, being expert at sealing a deal, made an effort to change George Cole's mind. "George, Joe's dad, ended up being fantastic. He stuck with us. Joe was going up to Man United, having a look round at Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, everywhere. We let him do it because I felt if we said, "You're not going," his dad would have said, "No, he does what he wants". I thought the only way to handle it was to give him the freedom and Joe ended up loving it at West Ham. His progress just continued. I don't think there was ever a time when you looked at him and thought he was standing still. He always had the ball, was always playing football. Just a natural. From 11 he was very, very special and it has continued from there."
Cole's reputation, while he was still polishing boots, developed extraordinarily quickly. Before he had even established himself in West Ham's first team he had inspired banner headlines and was being compared to Diego Maradona and Pele. The tale of Sir Alex Ferguson asking about his progress every time he spoke to Redknapp only added to the aura around this prodigy. His team-mates, regularly left awestruck on the training ground, nicknamed him 'the conjuror'. Kevin Keegan, England manager at the time, could not rein in his excitement, placing Cole top of his list of teenagers. "I put him first because there is a shortage of that type of player," he said. "He's a Gascoigne-type player. He can make things happen, hold things up, let the ball run. Sometimes you look at him and think, "How do you do that?" And then you realise it's just talent and feeling. What he can do is tremendous."
Young Cole remained amazingly level-headed. Relieved of his apprenticeship chores ahead of schedule because he was pushed into the first-team squad while he was still eligible to defend the FA Youth Cup, he never allowed his ego to mushroom. Cole spent a couple of years at Lilleshall, the FA's centre of excellence until it was closed a few years ago to make way for the ill-fated project at Burton. There he was taught life skills as well as football techniques and had a few hard knocks, but it was a solid family life more than any lessons that has kept him easy going. "He's got no side to him," says Redknapp. "He's just a nice lad and nothing bothers him. He's obsessed by football. He's focused. His mum and dad will keep him right. George is pretty strict. Joe's temperament is pretty bullet-proof and he just loves the game. He's like a little kid who always wants to be out there with a football. If he gets the breaks there's no doubt he'll go right to the top."
Carrick was more of a slow burner. For a start, neither his football style nor his personality were as extrovert as Cole's. He was brave, though, choosing to uproot from his native north-east at the age of 15 to try his luck in the capital. A product of the famous Wallsend Boys Club, which counts Alan Shearer and Peter Beardsley as graduates, he made his decision partly because Newcastle - then managed by Keegan - disbanded their reserve team, thus closing the main avenue for aspiring young Geordies. Carrick thought: "I've no chance of coming through here," and chose West Ham because their academy was fruitful and their welcome was warm. "It was a big move at the time but it was the right thing to do and I had to do it," Carrick recalls.
"At first it was hard. London, compared to Newcastle, is so much busier, quicker, bigger, like. I moved into digs with a couple of Australians who were in the same boat as me so we all looked after each other. After a couple of months I felt settled, and soon it was a home from home." His seriousness did set him apart from some of the other lads, however. That and the fact that when he phoned his folks back in Newcastle and his accent intensified none of the other boys could understand a word he was saying. Garcia, one of those Australians, remembers him as well behaved. "He never did anything wrong. He was a bit boring, really. When all the boys went out on the town he would just sit in the corner acting sensibly while the rest of us got drunk. Mind you, that's because he was on the verge of breaking into the first team at the time. The rest of us never stood a chance. "That's not to say Michael can't drink. It's just that he's totally professional. He's Mr Dependable. Always has been, always will be. Alex Ferguson will never have any trouble from him. He has always been ambitious and believes playing for United will improve his international hopes. He has always wanted to play at the highest level - for both club and country."
According to Redknapp, Carrick's difficulty at the start was mainly physical, and his development was hampered to the extent that he lost almost two seasons to injuries. "Michael was like a skeleton, he outgrew his strength. He suddenly shot up by eight inches and couldn't get around the pitch any more. He could pass the ball but couldn't run. He had problems with his knees because he grew too quickly. But once he grew there was never any doubt." Having Cole in the same age group was a blessing of sorts for Carrick in the early days. As well as their kinship, the frenzy around Cole gave Carrick the breathing space to develop at a gentler pace. "He took all the pressure off me," recalls Carrick. "I had a handful of games in the first team without anyone knowing much about me. Whereas with Joe, from his first game, there was so much attention because everyone had heard of him. He had all this expectation to live up to whereas whatever I achieved was a bonus. He bore the brunt of it. The way he coped with it all was amazing. He just took it all in his stride."
When Cole and Carrick first broke into the West Ham first team, they entered a dressing room full of experienced players. Paolo Di Canio, Frederic Kanoute, veteran model pros such as Shaka Hislop, Stuart Pearce and Nigel Winterburn, Croatia World Cup bronze medallists Igor Stimac and Davor Suker, and internationals Rigobert Song, Trevor Sinclair and Steve Lomas. Pearce made a particularly strong impression. Carrick recalls: "He helped us an awful lot, especially being just behind us on the field, he talked us through all the time, telling us what to do and where to go. Then after the game he discussed what went on. He's that type of character. He's boisterous - and if you're not doing it right he lets you know. He almost wants to fight if you've done something wrong."
Lomas recalls how comfortably the young pair slotted into first-team life - although one needed a little more encouragement than the other. "I'm delighted for both of them because they were two great kids who were fantastic to have around," the Northern Ireland stalwart remembers. "Coley was training with us from the age of 15 and he was obviously so talented. But you can see how the move to Chelsea has enhanced him as a player. Joe probably more than anyone under Jose Mourinho has come on. At times Mourinho was very hard with him, but he has gone from the situation where nobody knew his best position to a guy Chelsea have missed terribly this season. Michael was different. I was always saying to him, "Michael, show more". He had so much in his locker but he's the sort of bloke who needs the stage. He stayed at West Ham when we went down, but he's that quiet and unassuming he maybe stayed a bit too long. He needed to push on, and Totenham gave him the Premier League stage again and he improved with Martin Jol."
Carrick was the last of West Ham's big names to leave following the club's relegation in 2003. After one season outside the top flight, he felt compelled to leave. "The truth is I didn't feel I could play First Division football much longer," he admitted and the move across London to White Hart Lane enabled him, as Lomas always said, to show more. The transfer to Manchester United two years later was not an outrageous surprise, but the size of the fee - pounds 18.6million, a profit of more than pounds 15m for Totenham - was an eye-opener. "People were saying he was overrated and overpriced but they don't say that any more," Lomas says. "Now everyone can see what a good player he is and there is more to come."
Cole and Carrick made their England debuts in the same match. They were both still in their teens when they were called from the substitutes' bench by Sven-Goran Eriksson to play most of the second half of a 4-0 friendly win against Mexico at Pride Park, in May 2001. In the long run, Cole's versatility made him the most reasonable choice to take control of the vacant left midfield berth. But it has been harder for Carrick to cement a place in the international side because of the eternal Steven Gerrard-Frank Lampard problem that has bewildered recent England managers. Trying to fit both into the team naturally reduces Carrick's opportunities, but his performances for United as this season has progressed have enhanced his case. It will be interesting to see how he develops if, as expected, his England team-mate Owen Hargreaves arrives at Old Trafford.
It has been a season of discovery for Carrick. He had to learn to express himself on a stage as massive as Old Trafford and in the No 16 shirt, previously that of Roy Keane. He has had to disprove the doubters who baulked at the transfer fee and questioned his capacity to force the best out of his ability. "It was never a case of thinking that I had to do certain things to pay back the club or justify the price," he argues. "I never lay there at night wondering whether I could cope. To me this move seemed like a natural progression."
At both West Ham and Totenham he occasionally faced the charge that he is too laid-back, his easy personality preventing him from reaching a phase of consistent excellence. "Being laid-back is my nature in some ways, and that's the way I play the game. You can't change my personality," he says. United fans are coming round to Carrick's style and beginning to admire the way he has become a pivotal performer. Two sumptuous goals in United's 7-1 mauling of Roma in the Champions League quarter-finals exemplified a new willingness to express himself further forward as well as direct traffic from the heart of midfield. His old friend Cole has endured a more troublesome season, having been sidelined for most of the first nine weeks of the season and then for four months from November. His absence in a strange way enhanced his status. He was conspicuous by the vacuum he left in terms of Chelsea's verve and the impact he made on his return in Valencia in the Champions League was striking.
Cole was always popular with the Stamford Bridge crowd from the moment he followed Frank Lampard across London for what now seems a bargain pounds 6.6m in the summer of 2003, at the end of a season in which he captained West Ham at the age of 21. Nevertheless, it took a couple of seasons during which he was 'rotated' and erratic until he was really able to flourish. There had been talk of a loan move to CSKA Moscow, but he vowed to stick it out and fight for his place. Mourinho's demanding work ethic has channelled Cole's potential to the extent that he has become a key player at Chelsea. The turning point was in the Portuguese manager's first season, when Cole scored the match-winner against Liverpool, only to find himself on the end of a tongue-lashing afterwards as Mourinho slated Cole to the press, accusing him of neglecting his defensive duties. The player quipped that he had a season ticket to the manager's office at one point.
Being the conscientious sort, he chose to absorb the lesson rather than sulk. "I always take on board what the boss says to me and I learn from it," Cole acknowledged. "We are on the same page. He wants Chelsea to win games and I want Chelsea to win games. He wants Joe Cole to be a better player than he already is - and so do I. I have always taken criticism well and it wasn't massive criticism in my eyes. We both want to make me a better player for Chelsea and if that is the end result then that is all that matters. It hurt when people said I was showing off. All I like to do is put a smile on fans' faces as part of the side. What people must appreciate is I have had this attention since I was 16 at West Ham. The expectancy was enormous then and hasn't changed."
Cole and Carrick are still close. When they meet at Wembley they will be able to share how far they have journeyed since their boyish escapades in claret and blue. Even though they are in direct competition now they can empathise with the fact they are competing at the sharpest of sharp ends. As their old West Ham team-mate Lomas points out, "They have to perform under the spotlight every week now. At clubs like Manchester United and Chelsea, if you're not performing you're out."
As for Redknapp, he may have left West Ham years ago but he remains fiercely proud of the club's golden generation. In a short period they produced six future England internationals. Four of them - Ferdinand, Lampard, Carrick and Cole - will be at Wembley on Saturday for the FA Cup final. "And all four were in the Champions League semi-finals," he hastens to add. "The only pity is they don't all play for West Ham!"
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