in search of the joe cole derby

bonjour

on 16th March (2022) it is so that a competitive professional football match, a so-called 'champions league' one no less, shall be played between Chelsea and Lille. no, as a general rule, like i suspect many of you, i am not particularly interested in this. certain football games do hold some interest, look you see, but this isn't really one of them games. 

so why write of it? good, indeed fair, question. my interest was piqued, so to speak, when i saw it being written about as being the 'joe cole derby'. this rather struck me as marketing, or attempted hype, going all full tilt stark raving bonkers. 

rather than shrug it off and get on with my life, i thought no, let me look at how, or in what way, this match can justify or vindicate the declaration of such a name. and, also, look at other games that could well claim a similar stature. if you have little or no interest in joe cole, yet for some reason are still reading this, now is probably your time to depart. 

to facts, then. yes, it is so that (with degrees of distinction) joe cole played for both of these teams. indeed, to a certain extent, one could call Chelsea "the English Lille", or Lille "the French Chelsea", except both are wrong. although they strike me as terms of reference which are just as valid as calling a match between the two a 'joe cole derby'. 

a level of sense in calling this match what they do (the joe cole derby) might be present if it were so that we spoke of a lateral move between clubs. which didn't happen. after his stint at Chelsea (where he moved to off of West Ham) he joined Liverpool, and then went to Lille. on loan, no less, so it was not like he was ever a "proper" Lille player. who really is, though. 

which may well prompt, in the minds of some, a pertinent question. exactly why, or for what reason, does the world even need a match to be known as the 'joe cole derby'?  from what i recall he was a really, really good, possibly great player. but, that said, for 15 or so years we've had an ongoing "who is the greatest of all time, ronaldo or messi" debate. no one has, except maybe joe (or perhaps even john terry), ever said "neither are joe cole, though". 

he is an interesting character, though. that rare sort of player who can move from one "rival" club to another, yet retain the good wishes of the fans off of all the clubs he represented. as i remember, when joe went from West Ham to Chelsea (as in one London club to another), the hammers hardcore were at peace with this, citing that it was "good business", it would put the lad on the world stage, etc. oddly they did not speak so when one frank lampard made the exact same move. 

certain places on the web, for i did (oddly) do some research on this, actually refer to any fixture which sees Chelsea play West Ham as "the joe cole derby". which makes a good deal of sense, actually. at the least, more than calling Chelsea vs Lille such. joe being so revered and well remembered at both clubs makes it a lovely idea to honour him with that match title, perhaps serving to take a touch of the sharper, more vicious element out of what is a hotly contested highly competitive game. 

others might well suggest that Chelsea vs Liverpool is also full worthy of the title "the joe cole derby". this is not one i am convinced on. sadly Liverpool did not play joe as much as they could have. also, to be fair, i believe that Chelsea vs Liverpool is affectionately called the "rafa benitez derby", so as to honour the greatest, best and most important spanish manager either side has had. 

actually, i am now quite bored of this. go ahead, whatever. call any match you care to the "joe cole derby" as far as i am concerned, or for all i care. the lad done good, always put a shift in, etc. why not honour him so. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!