Joe Cole is the last person really to lecture others on showboating. But, still, the former West Ham United maverick feels that Arsenal legend Thierry Henry took things a little too far.
In nine Premier League matches against the Hammers, one of the greatest forwards ever to grace the competition scored five goals.
Henry rattled a ruthless hat-trick past Glenn Roeder’s side in 2002/03, as Arsenal romped to a Highbury victory. That season, of course, will forever remain etched in West Ham United memories for all the wrong reasons.
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If the ‘Great Escape’ of 2007 is Nuno’s inspiration – his current side cutting the gap between themselves and 17th place Nottingham Forest to just two points – then their relegation four years prior is a cautionary tale for all those clubs deemed ‘too good to go down’.
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Joe Cole hated playing away to Thierry Henry’s Arsenal when he was at West Ham United
If a team boasting a young Joe Cole, plus Paolo di Canio, David James, Jermain Defoe and Trevor Sinclair cannot escape the drop, then Jarrod Bowen, Crysencio Summerville and Mateus Fernandes should be taking nothing for granted.
Speaking on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast before Nuno’s side face Burton Albion in the fourth round of the FA Cup, Cole remembers watching on helplessly as Henry rubbed salt into West Ham wounds.
“I think that [Arsenal] team is one of the best teams I’ve ever played against. I remember we played them with West Ham once and I was fuming,” Cole says.
“Henry – you know how he can be – he held our centre-half off and was doing kick-ups. Like, no-look kick-ups, running across the pitch doing kick-ups. I’m like, ‘Oh, no…'”
“It was just a little passage of play. [Arsenal] were winning and he had no need to do it. He could have just controlled it. I respected it but, when it’s against you, you’re like, ‘Oh mate…’
“And playing at Highbury? Oh my god. What a stadium that was to play at.”
According to Hammers insider Sean Whetstone, Bowen and Jean-Clair Todibo would be the first to leave in the event of relegation in May. Summerville, Fernandes, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Taty Castellanos would surely also have the vultures circling if a run of three wins in five league matches proves to be little more than a false dawn.
Of course, losing star players is merely par for the course for a club who finishes in the bottom three.
Why Cole joined Chelsea rather than Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal
For instance, Joe Cole crossed London to join nouveau-riche Chelsea back in 2003. He went on to win a pair of Premier League titles under Jose Mourinho at Stamford Bridge.
Arsenal and Arsene Wenger had ‘first refusal’ to sign Michael Carrick and Cole that summer. Though Cole, who hopes to see his old side secure a fifth-round spot in the FA Cup tomorrow, accepts that a ‘stacked’ Gunners side would have been incredibly hard to break into.
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“West Ham were in financial trouble, so they needed to sell,” Cole said on Mo Gilligan’s Beginning, Middle and End podcast in November. “They sold me, Glen Johnson and, later on, Carrick and [Jermain] Defoe. It was a balancing the books situation, so I needed to go.
“There were other options [than Chelsea]. Manchester United were talking to my agent. Arsenal, Arsene Wenger had first refusal on me and Michael Carrick!
“I’ll put an asterisk on it. This wasn’t the Arsenal of 2012 or 2013. They still had some fantastic players. Edu was still there, Patrick [Vieira] was still there, Gilberto [Silva]. You signed [Juan Antonio] Reyes. Henry, [Sylvain] Wiltord, [Robert] Pires, [Freddie] Ljungberg.
“Stacked! And Arsenal were the best team in the country.”
“Roman [Abramovic] came in at Chelsea,” Cole recalls. “They were a good team [before Abramovic arrived]. They finished fourth. But Roman came in [and transformed it].
Arsenal turned [Carrick and I] down. Manchester United were still sniffing around, and you’re sitting there waiting.
“I’m going back to pre-season at West Ham thinking, ‘right, compartmentalise this. It’s down to the club. If they want me to go, they’ll accept a bid. If they don’t, I’m ready to [keep playing for West Ham]’.
“The bid happened. I get in the motor, drive to Stamford Bridge, negotiate. It took three or four hours. Really quick! I was ready to sign, quick medical, met [manager] Claudio Ranieri.
“As a kid, I supported Chelsea because my pal at school, his dad took us. I always had that fondness for Chelsea. It happened really quick and it just felt, going into the club, that you were in the centre of the football universe.”
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