CALLING the manager a coward is a novel way of trying to get yourself into a football team, but then Andy Cole has always been something of a maverick, and his burgeoning band of supporters would say his football has spoken in more persuasive vein since that ill-advised outburst on the eve of England's last match.
If aptitude, rather than attitude, is the overriding criterion, it will be a perverse decision if he is again absent on Thursday, when Glenn Hoddle names his squad for France's visit on February 10.
The rest of the 23-strong pool is likely to provide few surprises and so, Hoddle's latest own goal apart, the Manchester United man will dominate the usual speculation over the next few days.
Two things militate against him getting back into the squad and adding to the two caps he has won, both as substitute, in 1995 and 1997. Oddly, given the coach's Christian beliefs, Hoddle is not one for turning the other cheek, and he is unlikely to forgive, still less forget, Cole's remarks when England played the Czech Republic in November.
Under the banner headline "Hoddle is a Coward", Cole said: "I'm convinced his reasons for leaving me out of the international squad are not professional, they're personal. If Hoddle doesn't want me to play for him, the feeling is mutual. I wish he had the bottle to tell me face to face what his problem is with me." Hoddle may not have informed him in person, but he has told the press.
From the footballing perspective, he believes Cole's hit and miss finishing is such that he needs five chances to score once, and argues that while he gets those opportunities with his club, they don't come along like buses at international level. It is a widely held theory, and one to which I subscribed, until recently.
Having seen the light on the road from Old Trafford, it is now my contention that on neither count - slack mouth or slack finishing - should Cole continue to be overlooked. What he said to The Sun in November was heat of the moment stuff - certainly less offensive than Hoddle's views on the disabled as reported yesterday - and should be dismissed as such.
Like nearly all footballers these days, Cole has his "advisers" (as the new breed of agents like to be known) whose advice on this occasion should have been to keep his thoughts to himself, rather than to sell them for provocative display on the morning of an international at Wembley. As a player, which is how he should be judged, it is beyond question that Cole has improved, and continues to go from strength to strength, after hitting it off at once and reaching a near-telepathic understanding with his soul mate, Dwight Yorke. Such is the quality of their combined play that if they were both available for England we might never hear of Alan Shearer again.
There is more than a suspicion that Yorke, of Trinidad and Tobago, is the better, more intelligent player: Teddy Sheringham with pace. But Cole, whose interaction has come on in leaps and bounds now that he has a partner on the same wavelength, is not far behind in terms of bottom-line effectiveness.
The question, of course, is whether he could work as profitably with Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler or whoever, as he does with Yorke. Maybe not, but only by trying him will Hoddle find out. I can hear his response now: "We are too close to the vital European Championship qualifier against Poland (March 27) to start experimenting. The France match has been arranged as a rehearsal." Fair enough, but surely Cole, with five goals in his last five games, merits a place in the squad ahead of a novice like Emile Heskey, who was among the non-playing reserves last time, but who had not scored in his past seven appearances before yesterday?
If Cole is on the blacklist, there is a strong case for calling on Darren Huckerby or Julian Joachim for the first time, rather than Heskey. Chelsea's Frank Leboeuf said after their match against Coventry a fortnight ago that Huckerby was as difficult an opponent as Owen, and Joachim is playing an increasingly impressive part in Aston Villa's championship challenge.
It is only the last of the forward places that is at issue. Of the others, Owen, absent last time, will return for the convalescent Ian Wright, and Dion Dublin, Fowler, Paul Scholes and Paul Merson pick themselves. Elsewhere, Tony Adams will return after injury, and the only vacancy to be filled is in midfield, where David Batty's troublesome ribs could give Nicky Butt, who performed the anchor role against the Czechs, another start.
Batty was on the bench last time. In his absence, Hoddle has to decide whether to play Paul Ince, who will be suspended for the Poland match, or A N Other.
Frank Lampard, the Under-21 captain, would be my choice or, on a like for like basis, Tim Sherwood, of Blackburn, but it will probably boil down to Ince or Rob Lee.
Ince, the midfield "guvnor", has to play if Hoddle accepts, as surely he must, that a morale-enhancing victory over the world champions would be more beneficial than a full-scale rehearsal for Poland. The coach, more than anyone, needs as many good results as he can get now.
