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Joe Cole postpones his memoirs after World Cup flop

England’s dreadful performance at the World Cup has persuaded Joe Cole to delay the publication of his autobiography by at least a year in the hope that a good first season at Liverpool will provide the story with a happy ending.

The midfielder’s deal with Simon & Schuster had been geared towards an August 19th release date and the inside story of England’s calamitous South Africa campaign was to have been a key selling point.

But Cole, who signed for Roy Hodgson at Liverpool last week, has sensibly reasoned that England fans who have already had their summer spoiled may not be keen to relive their Bloemfontein blues in the run-up to Christmas.

He has also been clever enough -- or, at least, his publicists have -- to realise that his new following among Merseyside fans may not be too interested in his final days at Stamford Bridge.

Simon & Schuster say that the deadline for publication in time for this year's Christmas trading period was missed, in any event, while Cole considered what to do.

Confirming the change of plan, Mike Jones, editorial director for non-fiction, said: "Joe really didn't want the book to end on a down note, both because of the disappointment of the World Cup and also not knowing at that point which club he was going to play for.

"Joe will still cover the World Cup campaign [in the book] and also his first season at his new club."

Publication is now scheduled for autumn next year.  Simon & Schuster will be keeping their fingers crossed that Cole’s stock is back up again by then, although not as much as Liverpool, who are paying him £90,000 a week.

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