There was a bit of instant nostalgia available to anyone who scanned the further reaches of the football results a couple of weeks ago. There, in the French Ligue One, was a name largely forgotten in this season of Tevez and Balotelli, Van Persie and Adebayor. Among the scorers as Lille beat Ajaccio 4-1 was a certain Joe Cole.
It was a timely reminder of his presence just as thoughts start turning to England's forthcoming trip to Poland and Ukraine.
"I've not given up hope of the Euros," says Cole, who last played for England at the 2010 World Cup finals. "I'm still here, doing my best, playing well. I can't do any more than I am doing. I guess it all depends on who the manager is now."
Certainly, in the markets and cafes of the northern French city of Lille, no one has forgotten about Cole. Along the cobbles and down the boulevards, everyone you meet refers to the latest footballing hero hereabouts simply as "L'Anglais". There is no confusion with that nickname. While numerous Frenchmen, from Eric Cantona to Yohan Cabaye, have come to thrive in the Premier League, in French football there is only one Anglais. And the Englishman in question thinks that is a shame.
"More should come over here for sure," he says as he escorts me through his new place of work, Lille's magnificent training centre, built around the stable block of a former chateau.
"It's opened my eyes a bit. I think we're very blinkered in England, we know about Barcelona and Real Madrid and not much beyond. France? This is all new to me. And I like it."
Certainly the chatty, affable Cole looks at home around Lille, cheerfully issuing a ‘ca va' here and a ‘tout va bien?' there as he shakes hands with anyone he passes. Put a beret on him and you could almost be persuaded he has been here all his life. Almost.
"French is hard, I'm not great by any stretch of the imagination," he says of his language skills. "But it's a lovely place to come and work. And the football's been good. Last season I barely played, but I've done 36 games this year, got nine goals, not missed a training session. I'm doing well."
Career in reverse
It is nice to hear. Not just electrifyingly skilled, Cole is one of English football's good guys, an enthusiast rather than a cynic, a street footballer made good. Yet, after a triumphant time at Chelsea, his injury-bedevilled season at Liverpool appeared to set his career in reverse.
"When I went to Liverpool, I admit it was more of a culture shock than coming to France," he says. "In Liverpool the football club is the main thing in city, so there's no escape. The people are great, don't get me wrong, lovely people, but they are at you all the time."
As a result, perhaps, of his unease, Cole never established himself on Merseyside. His cause was hardly helped by the fact his very presence became associated with the hapless regime of Roy Hodgson, the manager who signed him. "Roy was in trouble at Liverpool from day one," Cole says. "I could see the pressure growing on him. Sad to see. But that's the microwave culture we live in: everyone wants everything immediately. Sanity would tell you no one is going to get Liverpool from this to this in six months. But that's what was wanted and Roy paid the penalty."
Soon afterwards Cole found himself loaned to Lille, a place away from the overwrought soap opera of the Premier League, where he could recoup and regather. But he also found it was away from English footballing attention. So far away, indeed, his growing renaissance appears to have been largely missed by those who matter in the game.
Does he feel a little out of it here? "Out of what? England? Well, I haven't played for England for a while. Towards the end with Fabio Capello, for whatever reason, I felt I wasn't going to get back whatever I did. There were times leading up to games when I thought ‘I'm playing well for Lille, I deserve a recall'. One never came.
"If he'd have carried on being England manager there would have been no way back for me. But now we're going to get a new manager and there's a fresh start for everyone."
And there is no doubt in his mind who is the outstanding candidate for the job. "I'd love to see Harry Redknapp as England manager. He deserves it. He's never done a bad job anywhere. He knows how to deal with people. He gets teams as good as they can be."
Some may think he would say that, given that Redknapp was his mentor in the early days of his career at West Ham. "Don't get me wrong, I'd love to work with him again. But I think he's the man from an unselfish point of view. Genuinely, if Harry got the job and never picked me, I still think he's the right man. No doubt."
— The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2012
