{"id":846071,"date":"2025-05-05T21:11:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T02:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/05\/joe-cole-wants-world-class-chelsea-star-back-in-england-squad-football\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T21:11:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T02:11:53","slug":"joe-cole-wants-world-class-chelsea-star-back-in-england-squad-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/05\/joe-cole-wants-world-class-chelsea-star-back-in-england-squad-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Cole wants \u2018world-class\u2019 Chelsea star back in England squad | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ex-England midfielder Joe Cole (Picture: TNT Sports)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Joe Cole wants \u2018world-class\u2019 Chelsea star Reece James back playing for England following his latest revival at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n

James missed the first three months of the season through injury and then suffered another setback in November which ruled him out for another two months.<\/p>\n

Enzo Maresca has understandably been cautious with James\u2019 workload since his return from the treatment room but gave him 90 minutes on Thursday night in the Europa Conference League.<\/p>\n

James captained Chelsea in the first leg of their last-16 tie against Copenhagen and it was the England international who broke the deadlock out in Denmark with a crisp strike from outside the box.<\/p>\n

Enzo Fernandez doubled Chelsea\u2019s lead on the hour mark before Gabriel Pereira\u2019s goal gave Copenhagen hope of a comeback ahead of the return leg at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n

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Chelsea hero Cole was impressed by James\u2019 performance against the Danish side and said the \u2018world-class\u2019 25-year-old had \u2018so much to offer\u2019 both his club and country.<\/p>\n

James has earned 16 caps since making his England debut in 2020 but none since 2023, mainly due to his reoccurring injury issues, though there is also substantial competition in the right-back position.<\/p>\n

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\"F.C.\t<\/p>

Reece James scored in Chelsea\u2019s victory over Copenhagen (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New England boss Thomas Tuchel will name his first squad next week and Cole hopes there is a place for James, who played in midfield against Copenhagen.<\/p>\n

\u2018He will have the respect of every player at Chelsea because of what he can do technically and physically,\u2019 Cole told TNT Sports after the 2-1 win.<\/p>\n

\u2018When he was at his best, he was as good as anyone in the world, no doubt about that. It\u2019s just about him finding his inner peace and managing him into games.<\/p>\n

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\"Wolverhampton\t<\/p>

Thomas Tuchel is set to name his first England squad (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018He can play in midfield, he did it when he was on loan at Wigan and got Player of the Year there as a young kid. He looks comfortable there.<\/p>\n

\u2018He\u2019s got so much to offer Chelsea and so much to offer England. It\u2019s so great to see him impacting the game like he did tonight.<\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t give up on Reece James because there is still a real, real world-class player in there who can be a massive player for Chelsea and England. Hopefully he can keep going now.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\"F.C.\t<\/p>

Chelsea beat Copenhagen in the Europa Conference League (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blues captain James, meanwhile, was pleased with Chelsea\u2019s victory in Denmark as Maresca\u2019s side put one foot in the quarter-finals of the Europa Conference League.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a big step in the right direction,\u2019 he said. \u2018This is a tough place to come, the atmosphere is amazing and they set up well.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s always frustrating to concede late on \u2013 we wanted to keep a clean sheet tonight \u2013 but we got the win.<\/p>\n

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\"F.C.\t<\/p>

Stamford Bridge boss Enzo Maresca (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018It\u2019s always good to score and help the team. It will be another huge game next week because we really want to advance and win this competition.\u2019<\/p>\n

Maresca praised \u2018fantastic player James after Chelsea took control of their last-16 tie and discussed his role as a midfielder.<\/p>\n

\u2018He is in a very good mood,\u2019 the Stamford Bridge boss said. \u2018He played very good against Aston Villa and again tonight.<\/p>\n

\u2018We know how important he is for us; he is our captain, a fantastic player but we all know the most important thing for Reece is that we need him fit.<\/p>\n

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\"F.C.\t<\/p>

James missed much of the season through injury (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018It is our duty and our target to keep him fit until the end because for sure, he is going to help us.<\/p>\n

\u2018Tonight, again, he played very good, scored a goal. He can play in many positions because the good players can play in many positions.<\/p>\n

\u2018At this moment, we are using him as a midfielder and he is doing very well.<\/p>\n

\u2018When I signed with Chelsea, probably the day after, I sent him a video about seeing him as a midfielder.<\/p>\n

\u2018I see Reece as a midfielder, not now \u2013 since day one, before I met him for the first time, he was on holiday. I sent him a clip about him playing as a midfielder.<\/p>\n

\u2018I mentioned Reece playing as a midfielder a long time ago. He is playing there now but the good thing is he played this year already as a full-back, as a centre-back and in the central midfielder.<\/p>\n

\u2018The main target for us is to help him be fit all season.\u2019<\/p>\n

Chelsea return to Premier League action this weekend against relegation-battlers Leicester City before preparing for their crucial European clash in west London.<\/p>\n

For more stories like this,\u00a0check our sport page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Paul Scholes frustrated with \u2018sulky\u2019 Manchester United star<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Man Utd star slammed over \u2018unacceptable\u2019 decision during Real Sociedad clash<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ex-England midfielder Joe Cole (Picture: TNT Sports) Joe Cole wants \u2018world-class\u2019 Chelsea star Reece James back playing for England following his latest revival at Stamford Bridge. James missed the first three months of the season through injury and then suffered another setback in November which ruled him out for another two months. Enzo Maresca has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":846072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,96831],"tags":[5583,105271],"class_list":{"0":"post-846071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wants","8":"category-world-class","9":"tag-wants","10":"tag-world-class"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}