Cole keen to learn from Drogba (From Echo)

Cole keen to learn from Drogba

8:31pm Saturday 6th June 2009

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CARLTON Cole has been picking Didier Drogba's brains in a bid to become an England regular.

The West Ham striker, 25, is part of Fabio Capello's squad for England's World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan after a successful season at Upton Park.

But with the likes of Emile Heskey and Peter Crouch also competing for that target-man position, Cole is determined to keep improving.

And that quest has taken him to see Drogba, his former Chelsea team-mate, and Aston Villa's Norway international John Carew.

"I talk to Didier a lot and he feels that I can progress even further than I have and I am happy that he thinks of me highly," said Cole, who scored 12 goals for the Hammers last term.

"I talk to John Carew as he scores goals wherever he goes. Hopefully I can do that one day."

Cole has also been studying tapes of Bolton's Kevin Davies and Inter Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic in a bid to build on his long-awaited breakthrough season.

New West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola succeeded where the likes of Jose Mourinho and Alan Curbishley had failed by finally tapping into Cole's clear potential.

"I've been speaking to Drogba and watching Kevin Davies as he is one of the greatest in the Premier League at holding up the ball," Cole added on club website www.whufc.com.

"I also watch Ibrahimovic and other similar players to me, big powerful players who can cause defenders problems.

"This season I have worked on my game and I looked at DVDs and watched other players play, watching what they do and taking things from their play to put into mine and trying to implement it on the training pitch and do it on the pitch on a Saturday, so it has been a lot of hard work away from the field."

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