Andrew cole has announced his retirement!! wish him the best of luck in the future http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/7721528.stm
Will always be mainly remembered for the Yorke/Cole partnership in Man Utd's treble winning year. I heard he wants to now get into coaching and hope he does well.
Yes, he got 15. The Shearer/Sheringham partnership and then the emergence of Michael Owen had alot to do with that.
hoddle said that he needed six chances to score. although he'll be remembered most for scoring buckets of goals whilst goal hanging at newcastle and man u, personally i thought he turned into a much better (and completely different) player towards the end of his time at blackburn, and then through his stints with fulham and man city. during that period of time he would have offered something different to the england squad and might have got a few more caps and done something useful for england rather than been a flop. i would have rather had andy cole at euro 2004 than theo walcott, for instance. not that it would have made a lot of difference mind you.
Theo didn't go to Euro2004. By the time of the World Cup in 2006 Cole was past it and was picking up injuries so he wouldn't have been able to play anyway. Colm, Andy must have upset Eileen Drewery's faith healing abilities for such a nasty response to be given by Glenn
true. what a spazz i am. anyway, at euro 2004 our strikers were rooney, owen, vassell, heskey. would have been fair to include cole in the squad over either vassell or heskey to my mind. although my mind might just be making things up. thinking back, cole knackered himself in the spring of 2006 and missed the rest of the season for man city, so you're right, he wouldn't have been in contention for the 2006 world cup by up until that injury he had a very effective season for man city, wasn't really quite past it.
I probably shouldn't have said 'past it' but my point was he was beginning to pick up injuries more regularly and if he was playing international football on top of club football then it would have been too much. I guess that would have been another reason for him to retire in 2002 as he could concentrate on club football more. He wouldn't have come out of retirement for Euro 2004 or the World Cup in 2006 just to be an understudy in the end anyway imo.
good club footballer. sad thing is that we could probably come up with a pretty good squad of players who were very good for club, but not so for Country in recent times.
Good player who never did it for England. In fact we had quite a few prolific goal scorers in that mid to late 90's period who never replicated their club form for England Cole Fowler Philips Ferdinand to some extent
Wrong. He was a great club footballer. If you took away Shearer's penalties then Cole would have out scored him over his career. Good doesn't some him up. He scored 34 goals in one league season. People were creaming themselves over Ronaldo last year and he only got 31 (i'm not saying he is better than Ronaldo). That wasn't even that good a Newcastle side that year. Goalhanging, as mentioned previously in this thread, is harsh too. For one thing, it is not a bad thing. A strikers primary purpose is to score goals and he scored a lot. Also, you don't play in one of the best teams ever, Man Utd 1999, if you are only a goal hanger. Fergie wouldn't have had the time for a player that will break up attacks every time he got the ball. He then went on to prove that it wasn't just having Giggs and Beckham passing to him that made him good, with brilliant stints at Fulham and Man City. Cole didn't play for England much because of our great strikers at the time. Shearer, Sheringham, Ferdinand, Fowler, Collymore, Wright, Sutton were playing at the same time as his peak. Then others like Owen came along too. He didn't play for England not because he was not internatioal class, but due to ridiculously strong competion for places. i do have a soft spot in particular for him. Without his goals we would never have got promoted, without his goals we may have struggled to stay up, and without his sale we couldn't have constructed a great team. Legend.
For someone so prolific he wasn't all that clinical, certainly not in Owen's class for example. Amazing movement though.
Andy Cole was a great great player. Much better than people give him credit for, superb technically - but the reason he got so few caps was that he was notoriously difficult to get along with. This may be to do with his upbringing in a a rough neighbourhood that shaped his attitude and personality. This season he hadn't played much for us and deservedly so - his form was poor and he was a disruptive influence in the team allegedly. As soon as he left our form has picked up. But hey, I'm supposed to be bigging him up for being a great player here! Well, he was. A fantastic player. And he grew up a mile down the road from me (although not in the same area). Shocking how few caps he got. He was miles better than Ian Wright or Les ferdinand. To be honest I can't really see his weakness on the pitch in comparison to Shearer. Physical strength - that's it (Cole had much superior technique). I think his perceived 'moody bad boy' image was what prevented him from getting more recognition. If Shearer had joined United instead of Cole, Man U would have been less successful.
Cole was quality through & through (PFA young player award, Treble winner etcc It's too bad he could not replicate his club form when he played for England.
You forgot Ian Wright, I wouldnt include Fowler in that he did well enough till he got injured which ruined both his club and international form. I think they werent really given much of a chance and there does have to be a question mark as to why they werent given a chance esp Cole and Wright. Its easy to count out the caps but when you list how much time each "cap" was its even more embarrassing for these players, 5 minutes on the pitch counts the same as 90 as far as the stats are concerned. I dont think anyone could really argue Shearers place but we played more than one striker back then and they both played for the two most successful teams in that period. But often being picked by England is governed by who you know rather than how good you are.