Joe Cole has praised Tammy Abraham for making the decision to leave Chelsea for Roma and is confident the England international will ‘obliterate’ Serie A.
The 23-year-old finished last season as Chelsea’s top goalscorer in competitions but failed to win the full trust of Thomas Tuchel who left him out of his matchdays squads for the FA Cup and Champions League finals.
Tuchel’s decision to sanction the club-record signing of Romelu Lukaku proved to be the final straw for Abraham who will look to relaunch his career in Italy under the tutelage of Jose Mourinho.
‘First of all I think it’s incredibly brave of Tammy to peruse that move and I think it’s great for his career,’ Cole told the BBC.
‘I think it’s great for Jose because he gets a player with a fantastic goalscoring record, young, hungry who he can mold.
‘I think he, Tammy, will obliterate Serie A. I think he’ll go there and score goals. He’ll push himself back in the frame for Gareth.
‘Go and look at Tammy’s goalscoring record he just has that knack and desire to score goals. For Jose, for Roma, for Tammy, for Chelsea, for England it’s one of those moves where you’re like ‘yeah, I can see that it makes sense’ and I think he’ll do fantastically well.’
Lukaku, meanwhile, returns to the Premier League after a three-year absence having restored his reputation following a difficult spell at Manchester United.
Cole believes the 28-year-old will have a tramsformative impact on Chelsea’s forward line, but admits he might not find English defences as accomodating at those in Italy, claiming Serie A is currently levels below even the Spanish and French leagues.
He added: ‘That was the question mark against him (if he could score in the big games) and let’s be honest, the Italian league is not… I’d put the Italian league behind the French league and the Spanish league at the moment.
‘But I feel there is a desire now and maturity in his game, he gets it and he’s so direct. I think they’ve got him at his peak.
‘Sometimes you get myths about players but he’ll definitely score goals and I’ll think he’ll make the difference. I think he can do it in the big games and I think he will.’
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