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Cole leads by example

Middlesborough 2 West Ham United 2

“YOU WOULD HAVE thought,” Glenn Roeder said, “that the table had been reversed,” and just for a moment it made for a delicious fantasy. Arsenal and Manchester United battling it out for the wooden spoon, Sunderland poised for the Champions League and West Ham United peerless and proud at the top.

Difficult to swallow? In this imaginary realm, Roeder would be the outstanding candidate for manager of the season and that, as it happens, may be the least fanciful notion of all. Could you effectively shuffle “easily the smallest squad” in the division, which “can’t afford one more injury”? Would you consider naming Joe Cole captain or playing Ian Pearce as a centre forward? Could you cope?

With his position perilous and under intolerable scrutiny,…

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