He said: ``If someone had said I would be in this sort of position 14 months ago I would have said `no chance' or `they're mad' but it shows what can happen.

``Playing for Arsenal has also given me the stage to come and play for England and there are other youngsters pushing who want to be part of things.

``If I manage to go to the World Cup it will be brilliant.

``I'm still young and you never know, I might get injured, but if I'm in the squad next summer it will be fantastic for me.''

Cole believes that the current senior squad has an exciting future ahead of it despite the scrappy performance against the Greeks. He said: ``Most of the players have only just started playing together so you are not going to get brilliant performances every game.

``But there is a belief that this squad can go on to do better things.

``I know I can get better and some of the other players know the same.

``If we keep working together then maybe we can achieve that. We showed away to Germany last month what we can be capable of. We went there and destroyed them.

``The great thing is we are going to the World Cup because six months ago everyone had written us off but we have managed to turn things around with the victory in Germany the biggest thing.''