Outstanding

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I have never sworn as much at a man utd player, (with the possible exception of Mikael Silvestre) as I did on the final day of the 94-5 season. No player has ever made me scream in frustration at missed chances (apart from Robbie Keane) and no player has occasionally looked as out of his depth (except for Kevin Kilbane)

But after three seasons of faffing around, looking like a mental cripple and playing like he had polio, This sort of stuff started happening and by the end a player who could only run forward, and was unaware that football also happened outside the box, had become the sort of player who could go around to various clubs and strike up good partnerships with other players regardless of their playing style.

Andy outstandingcole , we salute you

[Ek weet nie]

Outstanding

He only scored 1 penalty in his goalscoring career according to 101 great goals. Shearer in contrast scored 56 in his career. I still wonder wtf Keegan was thinking.

[Ray de Galles]

Outstanding

A friend of mine once had to get a signed Kenny Thomas CD for Ryan Giggs.

I'm Andy Cole a tortured soul, lost out again in front of goal
I wish I had your cocaine confidence

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Outstanding

he was a very limited player at newcastle, and buying ferdinand let them build a better team from front to back. It took a long time at man utd for him to change his game, and learn to play with his back to goal. He was great when he was scoring goals, but when he was off form, he was worse than useless and stank the place out.

I was really surprised to see in that 101greatgoals piece that he had 127 premier league assists. I'd say he'd managed about 5 of them for newcastle by the time they sold him.

[brian potter]

Outstanding

Utter nonsense from aiatl.

He was such a limited player at Newcastle that he managed a mere 55 goals in 70 league games. Manchester Utd wouldn't have spent £6m on a "very limited" player. He may or may not have got many assists for Newcastle, but from what I recall he played up front on his own with two wingers and Peter Beardsley feeding him, assists weren't what his game was about.

He could already play outside the box by the time he went to Manchester United, he could already play outside the box by the he went to Newcastle. He'd already learned that before he joined Bristol City. He had to play outside the box, because we rarely went near it during his spell with us. I saw him in about 25 of the 50 or so games he played in a Bristol City shirt and in that time he was prepared to drop back or go out wide in serach of space and possession. I've seen him hold up play, play towards his own goal and spin countless defenders. So don't give otf that Manchester United taught him how to play properly crap.

I used to work at the hotel in Bristol that Andrew Cole was staying in during his time at Bristol City and I've only 2 things against the bloke. Firstly, in the week leading up to his transfer to Newcastle I beat him at pool in a local, he claimed he was skint and would give me the fiver the next time he saw me at work. Secondly, he pretends his time in Bristol never existed.

[cackaforte]

Outstanding

Just seen an interview with Cole and he smiled. Never seen him smile before, always seemed a right miserable bugger.

[Tactical Genius]

Outstanding

Man U's supporters are unable to comprehend the fact that maybe some of Cole's poor performances were due to his strike partner at the time.

[Sixmartletsandaseagull]

Outstanding

Top player one of my faves

[EIM]

Outstanding

Tactical Genius wrote:

Man U's supporters are unable to comprehend the fact that maybe some of Cole's poor performances were due to his strike partner at the time.

I think we're able to comprehend it. We just think it's Cole's fault.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Outstanding

hmm, andy cole might have been a decent all-round player in division 2, but he really really wasn't much more than a goalscorer when he was first in the premiership, and when he wasn't scoring goals, he really could be wretched. Man utd bought him because they wanted a striker who would run behind the opposition defence, but he started badly, and it became very clear that his all around game just wasn't up to standard.

A case in point is the 1996 fa cup final. Cole had lost his place at centre forward to Paul scholes, but got his place for the final ahead of paul scholes because he had come on as a sub in the last game and scored a goal, some kind of bicycle kick.

Beckham twice put him in one on one and cantona put him in with a great through ball. You just knew he wasn't going to score. and he didn't, he shanked two wide, and bobbled one back to david james. He looked like a striker who had scored twice in his previous 11 games. he scored 11 goals that season, and 8 the season after.

The thing was that none of the other players had a particular problem playing with eric cantona. ole gunnar solksjaer didn't really have a problem when he banged in 19 goals in his first season. it's also worth pointing out that he was pretty shite in his first half season while cantona was suspended.

in his fourth season 1997-98 he started well and scored 22 in 29, but then had a row with sheringham during a game against Bolton and managed 4 goals in the last 16 games of the season, while united's title challenge died on its arse in the absence of Roy keane.

Even when he was scoring goals in the 97-98 season a lot of his goals were scuffed with his bizarre chicken style run, it really wasn't until the following season that he completely changed, he became much more assured on the ball and in front of goal. It took him a very long time to become a good player, but he got there eventually. I don't think anyone would be given 2 1/2 years to stop playing badly now.

[Mumpo]

Outstanding

Two things about Andy Cole.

1. When did he become Andrew Cole?

2. The thing I remember him for most was that trailer he appeared in for the BBC's sports coverage, when he recreated the goal he scored against Spurs that secured Manchester United the 1999(?) title, except with wooden dummies instead of Spurs defenders (yes, I know...)

I don't suppose anyone can find that trailer on YouTube?

[garcia]

Outstanding

i remember that dysfunctional cole-cantona partnership with great fondness. i don't think i've ever seen another player treat his team-mate with such naked contempt.

[Sixmartletsandaseagull]

Outstanding

When Manchester Utd played in that world club tournament in Brazil that time, I remember Cole was played in a withdrawn striker's role, like Beardsley used to play, in one game. It was against the Australian team I think. He was superb, albeit against an Australian team, but nonetheless he showed what a fine all round player he had become.

[David Agnew]

Outstanding

Mumpo wrote:

Two things about Andy Cole.

1. When did he become Andrew Cole?

When he (or more likely his agent) found out that andycole.com was not available, but andrewcole.com was.

[treibeis]

Outstanding

brian potter may put me right on this, but I'm almost certain the player Bristol City signed from Arsenal in 1992 referred to himself as "Andrew Cole".

[Moonlight Shadow]

Outstanding

I seem to remember the Italian media rating Cole/Yorke as the best striker pair in Europe at the time. Cantona never managed to do anything against Italian opposition back then and he was considered pants.

[brian potter]

Outstanding

treibeis is correct, he always referred to himself as Andrew. It's certainly how he introduced himself to me and everyone else.

It was only ever the media (and fans) who called him Andy, even after it was well known that he preferred to be called Andrew it still continued. It's a football thing though isn't it, all (nick)names end -y or -ie, it's the law.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Outstanding

hmm, shevchenko and rebrov would have run them very very close. In hindsight it was really fortunate for man utd that shovkovski had such a shit game against Bayern in the semi final of the CL that year. Man Utd were severely weakened in the final without keane and scholes, but Bayern were if anything just as badly hit by the loss of elber and lizarazu. There is no way that united would have just been 1-0 down against dynamo kiev coming up to the last minute.

moitie, cantona only ever played two games against an italian side, and they were two 1-0 defeats by marcelo lippi's huge team in their steroid addled pomp. Not only that but he was playing ahead of a midfield of 21 year olds. Man utd had fuck all of the ball at any point of the game, so I'm not really sure what he could have done

[Sixmartletsandaseagull]

Outstanding

I only remember Cantona having one good game in the CL his whole Manchester Utd career: Austria Wien away I think it was.

Cole certainly left Cantona trailing far far behind in terms of deeds in the CL.

My memory that semi was of Shevchenko causing chaos in the Bayern defence by running/slaloming through them but it just didn't happen for him or Kiev. It's hard to think Kiev could have outplayed Man Utd any more than Bayern actually did on the night.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Outstanding

Bayern outplayed united for ages alright, but without elber they couldn't really make it count, they had carsten Jancker up front for christ's sake. Without Keane, I doubt united would have been able to handle rebrov and shevchenko.

I wouldn't compare cole and cantona's european record. Cole played about five times as many cl games as cantona, and the man utd teams cantona played in were either fucked by the foreigner rule, or basically too young.

Also, english teams at that stage had real difficulty in keeping the ball relative to other teams in europe. I still shudder when I think of Barcelona beating man utd 4-0 in the nou camp. It took the premiership until about 98 before the top teams were playing at a european standard. The technical standard has really risen over the years. For his last three seasons, Cole had probably the best midfield in europe behind him.