As England fans reflect on another major tournament near-miss, the question of where the 2026 World Cup side fits into Three Lions history will no doubt have been a popular pub debate in recent days.
While Thomas Tuchel’s side have been able to call on two of the planet’s very best players in Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane, in terms of pure star power, the current England crop lags some way behind the so-called Golden Generation of the 2000s.
Joe Cole on England’s Golden Generation
For Three Lions midfielder Joe Cole however, the players themselves did not feel any added pressure.
“Everything going on is irrelevant to you,” Cole tells FourFourTwo. “You’re a footballer, you have your blinkers on, Ashley [Cole] more than anyone.”
Cole cites his namesake Ashley’s ability to shut out the external noise as being particularly impressive.
“All of the things that happened and how he was perceived wrongly, to go out and just play at the highest of high levels consistently is remarkable for a human being to do.
“We’ve all got a bit of that – I wasn’t under the pressure Ash had during my career, in that sense, but I didn’t care a jot. I’d just do my thing, try to win the game, then go home.
“Years later though, you think, ‘Maybe it affected the other players and the collective.’”
The debate over the Golden Generation’s failure has gone on for two decades now, with countless theories as to why they could never get past the last eight of a major tournament, but Cole insists there is no one obvious reason why that side failed.
“We cling to things,” he adds. “Everyone wants an answer of ‘that’s the reason we didn’t do it’. But nobody knows. We have opinions of why it didn’t work, but only one team can win the World Cup every four years.
“It’s the World Cup, it’s every footballer in the world, every country plays in it, it’s very, very difficult. A penalty or a referee sending somebody off, and that’s it.”
Could It Be Coming Home? with Joe Cole and Ashley Cole is brought to you by Carling, official sponsor of the Emirates FA Cup and Adobe Women’s FA Cup. Watch the show on YouTube and Spotify, or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts