Chelsea winger Cole: Salads more likely than booze for Premiership players

Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole insists there's been massive changes in the Premier League in terms of the professionalism of individual players.

Cole says starting off his career at West Ham United seems like a another world to what he experiences now.

He told Chelsea TV: "Football in this country has undergone a massive change in the last 10 years. The money has come in more and more each season and on the back of that the professionalism has gone up.

"The lifestyles have improved. When I was at West Ham, with some of the senior players that came from the late 80s period, I wouldn't say they were unprofessional because it was all they knew but there was a drinking culture.

"It is much, much less now. You talk to the young kids and they hardly go out clubbing and they look after their diet. We had no clue. West Ham were a bit late on the uptake of it all - I know it is not a problem there now, they are very professional these days - but I had no idea on diet. I didn't have a clue what a salad was."

In front of Cole as he recalls his past is a pile of grated carrot salad resembling a small haystack. It is the perfect illustration.

"The professionalism has gone through the roof, and fitness levels and tactics have improved as well," he continues. "When English teams were banned from Europe in the 1980s it affected us greatly. We were stuck in the doldrums and the coaches didn't have to play against different teams.

"We had one way of playing and that wasn't working in Europe until we finally got our act together. The last five or six years you can probably say that English teams have been the strongest in Europe. There was not much tactics at all when I started to be honest."