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The Athletic FC Totally extra. Today, it's a cold-powered addition. As we salute one of the Premier League's greatest, perhaps most underappreciated gold scorers, record-breaking, record-making, Andrew Cole. He wasn't cuddly and he couldn't bear Teddy, but there's lots of love for the hero of two United's in this totally extra. It's Thursday, the third of September with the totally extra for you. We have in the studio Tom Williams. Hello, James. Hi, Tom. On the big screen, Daniel's story, good afternoon, James. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, James. Good afternoon. Daniel, actually, sharing his screen space with today, Andy Midden, Andy, who's Johnny from Barcelona. How are you doing? Lovely to have you on, Andy. Sorry about that today. I've just spent seven days on the road with Mr. Cole. So I've, uh, is very fresh in my memory. You've just spent seven days on the road with Andy Cole, in a kind of weird, man-you-trip mash-up thing. We traveled round Ireland together. We started in Cork, I met him at Cork Airport, and then we drove north to Dublin, to Nuri, to Belfast, to Derry. So him and I spent a lot of time together. We even went to a rave together. Wow. Was this a professional trip or do you and Andy just go another day from time to time? It was a professional trip, although he has been to stay with my family in the past, and this was someone I didn't really have a relationship with when he played for Man United. I thought he was hard work, and he has since said to me that, you know, I just didn't really like journalists. I didn't think you knew what you're on about, and even last week was taking me to tasks, saying, how are you qualified to give me a rating when you've got no comprehension of what the manager has instructed me to go and do on the pitch? And I'm like, okay, is it this turn off here for Belfast mate or is it the next one? And it's a good guy. I like him. When he stopped playing, I did a four-hour interview with him and my perception of him completely changed. When he started telling me about his dad being a minor in a not-and-gum should call fields, his background, and I found that he's a private and quite shy person, but once he trusts you, then he's a real person of integrity. My mother and my wife both adore him, my children adore him, and I thought we'll travel around Ireland together. He was totally up for that, and I feel quite protective over him because he gets recognised everywhere, and I tried to take him in some pubs in Dublin, and he just got smothered. A couple of Fridays ago, when we finished our due, the promoter said, we've got a rave on. Do you want to come in Belfast? And I went, yeah, try it for an hour. And Andy Cole said, now I'm going to go back to the hotel. So I went to this rave, five or six thousand people there, and the average age was 18, which is a little below my age. And I sent Andy some, some audio and video of this rave going on, and he put it out on his own Instagram, implying that he was there. So this might be quite complementary, and we speak about him today, but you know, I thought that was quite disingenious of him to be doing that because his millions of followers thought that it was an ultra-rule call rave. Right. It's still very much in dance culture. I'm still very much in center-forward mode, didn't get a touch on the evening, but is claiming it all the same. Remark, what I also take from that is that nominative determinism, his dad was a minor named Cole. Yeah. And when you're a minor in the 70s and 80s in Nottinghamshire, when the minor strikes go in on, when you've suffered the racism, which his family suffered. You know, I said to him, did you ever go and watch Forrest or what's counting? He said, no, it just wasn't the thing for a kid off my estate to do. But his dad was quite an inspirational figure. He didn't like football. He only watched him three times in his entire career. He wasn't there at camp now. He was a cricket man mildly disappointed that Andy didn't become a cricketer. I think he's got six sisters. So he said you'd think that had helped me understand the female psyche. It hasn't. And he said that his father shouldered a lot of the abuse and didn't bring it home to the family. But he also said to him, when you down the mine, we're all blacks on. We're all the same down there. And then his father's funeral. One of his dad's friends came up to him and said, you know, your dad was really proud of you. And that's not something that his dad had ever said to him. And that really meant a lot to him because he was a top, top footballer. But the more I get to know him, I know him is a top human being. I actually had a dad say and sons for that matter. Yeah, everyone's got a lot of work to do. Crikey, well, looking forward to hearing more about your trip around Ireland, Tom, your recollections of Andy Cole at Man United. And also before that, because the other United was where he really came up with perhaps his greatest season ever, the first player ever to become top goal scorer and top assistor in a single Premier League season or a single first division season, I think that's right. Yeah, I mean, arguably the first great centre forward of the Premier League era, in many ways, certainly one of them. And that fantastic partnership that he formed with Peter Beardsley, and they'd not played together until that season, I think I'm right in saying, and just formed the most tremendous partnership. And then, you know, goes on to Manchester United, record transfer fee, huge expectations, takes a time to find his fee. And when I think about Andy Cole, and you touched on this in the intro, James, it's hard to, it's hard to escape the feeling sometimes that he's been somehow, slightly airbrushed from Premier League history. It's not a name that comes up all that often. You look at the scoring charts, and he's right up there, fifth highest scorer in the Premier League era. You take penalties at the equation, and he's second highest scorer. And like, some of the goals he scored, like, he scored some incredible goals. Like, there were a couple of chips that come to mind one against Everton, one against Coventry. There was an overhead bicycle kick from the edge of the penalty area against Leicester City in 1999. These deserve to be canonical Premier League goals, and you just don't ever see them. And I'm not entirely sure why that is, but it kind of feels like he deserves a bit more credit than he gets. Well, you can maybe explore that a bit. Certainly he did have a reputation as not being the easiest person to get along with, which is why it's also curious how he instinctively, it seems, formed these amazing partnerships with the Peter Beardsley, later on with Dwight York, and he met in the course more recently. Daniel, what do you think about when you think about Andy Cole? Yeah, I mean, to me, I was seven years old at the start of 93, 94, and my own team weren't in the Premier League. So that was the first reason I really gorged on the Premier League as sort of outside of the prism of Nottingham Forest, as it was at the time. And it just completely blew me away. I think that one of the reasons, and there are many, I think, one of the reasons the reputation slightly suffers is that there was quite a probably unfair but also understandable suspicion that he never quite fully lived up to that 93, 94 season. He became, to my mind, a goal score after then. Whereas in 93, 94, he was a fancy player. He was doing everything. He was a creator. He was running him behind. He was winning headers. He was, he almost looked like that Shiro prototype at Blackbird, where he was just scoring all every single type of goal, but was adding creativity in a way that we hadn't really seen before and didn't really see in the same way from him again. I think the other reason, and this is absolutely not his fault whatsoever, but I think by 1996, I think the influx of foreign attacking players meant that everybody of that ilk was slightly overlooked. They also almost became kind of one mash of English strikers when you had the rise of Birkamp, obviously. You had Kansenart at United with him. You then had Hasselbank and Henri was there by 1999 and it maybe just felt like Cole got slightly caught between two areas in terms of reputation, maybe. With all of that, as Tom points out, second higher score, if you take penalties out of it, a greater goal per game ratio, if you take penalties out of it than Alan Shira, 100% one of the great servings of the 90s. His partnership with Dwight Yor, one of the most memorable partnerships in English football history. Curiously, they only combined four nine goals in the Premier League. I mean, yeah, that feels like a very Dunkin' Alexander code. That's just the kind of childhood memory shattering stat that he drops in podcasts like this. I thought we might have been safe from that today. Well, no, but we have a quiz question for you, given that the most prolific partnership in Premier League history is clearly not Andy Yor, Andy Cole and Dwight Yor. Can you guess who were the most prolific in terms of assists for each other, the goals in Premier League history? I've got the top five here. I tell you what, at the end of the show, we'll see how many you can name. Before that, before we hear any more about Andy Cole, let's have a quick rummage in the Almanac. It's the first week in September. What has this week in football history brought us down the years? Well, on the 5th of September, 1988, who got his first England call up against Denmark, Paul Gascoin. We're going to see Paul Gascoin. Looks as though Peter virtually is going off to make way for Gascoin to win his first full cat. Big moment for him, 21 years old. Paul Gascoin, a year and a day later, September 6th, 1989, Terry Buncher, bleeding for England after that clash of heads with Swedish striker Johnny Ekstrom and a FIFA World Cup qualifier. The image of the week was Terry Buncher, England's bloodstained captain in Stockholm. With Peter Schultan no less staunch behind him, Buncher led England to a vital draw. First of September 2008, Sheikh Mansur took over Man City and on that same day, pipped Chelsea to Rubinho out of Real Madrid for what was then a British record transfer fee. 32 million. Second of September 2013, Arsenal signed Mezzat Ozil. Ladies and gentlemen, Arsenal fans everywhere, it appears Arsenal have got their man. Mezzat Ozil has just been speaking moments ago and he's talking about the thrill, the joy he feels in joining Arsenal tonight. It was a bit of a shock because Arsenal Nega didn't do that kind of thing. His previous record was 17 million for Husay and Tony O'Reyes, but 42 million was found for the inverted commas enigmatic, close inverted commas. Was it Ozil? Yeah, that was, that felt like the peak of Deadline Day excitement. Obviously, we've had a pretty mad transfer deadline day this summer, but around that time, that was real sky sports news reporters surrounded by hordes of youths in a car park. It has taken some time and what are we? We are just over half an hour from the from the window closing and Arsenal have pulled off the signing of Mezzat Ozil. A five-year contract was put on the table to him. He has signed that. Mezzat Ozil is now only playing in the Premier League. I worry about that camera, man. I worry about him. Do they not have that anymore? No, they stopped doing it. Shortly after that, because they were getting harangued so much and they started standing on the pitch. Yeah. So we lost those hard-worn seats. Thank goodness for that. Excellent. All right. Well, so that was a little taste of one or two things that happened in history, but let's delve a little bit deeper back into the 90s and talk Andy Cole. Talk to you guys as well before they can keep us on. All right. So, Andy Mitten, what kind of player was Andy Cole? Goal scorer. He was brought for his goals. And yet, when he arrived at Manchester United, Brian Kid, the assistant manager said, don't be thinking that scoring 40 goals will be enough face on. And he's like, what? And he said, this is about a team. We know what you did in Newcastle United. And he'd been a big success at Bristol City as well, where he was inspired by a poll called Jackie Jackanowski. And he adored this Polish guy. And he didn't quite follow him out at night time because he said that Jackie liked to have a drink on a Wednesday and a first day and you know, one on a Friday as well. But before it was a wonderful player. And then he was doing his laundry one day in Bristol when he got a post it note put on his car by Bristol City's manager, Russell Osmond, because mobile phones hadn't become a thing. He said, call me straight away. So, he'd located his car, but not Cole. And he called him and he said, Newcastle United want to sign you. And he rang Kevin Keegan and Kevin Keegan said, hello, Adrian. He said, what? He said, my name's Andy. He said, oh, sorry, Andy. So, he got his name wrong. And this is Newcastle United's most expensive ever signing. Can you come up? He said, now I'm finishing my laundry. So, he stayed in Bristol, did his laundry and he went up to Newcastle the next day, signed with a big success. He actually lived in a working class pit village called Crook, which I found quite endearing, but he got smothered by the locals. They'd come round and say, we baked you some cakes because you've just scored two goals. And do you need any sugar and an hour later the door would go again. And it would be like, we've baked you some bread. And it was lovely, but he was in a little bit of a goldfish bowl there, but he was a proper goal scorer. He learned from Peter Beardsley. And then that's why Manchester United looked at him. It was his goals. And the United also looked at Stan Colleymore. And of course, Eric Cantanar was about to find himself in some disrepute. But it was a team which was, did won the double, but Fergie just really liked the number of goals he scored and the variety of goals that he scored as well. No. The move to Newcastle, I did not know that Russell Ozzman had precipitated that by leaving a post on his vehicle. That doesn't even look straight away. Blow off. Can you imagine? Yeah. Yeah. What have it rained? Yeah. Yeah. Well, sliding doors and that, he arrived at Newcastle United in February 1993. They broke their club transfer record to sign them. They princely 1.75 million. They were down in the first division, the second tier at that time. He scored then 12 goals in as many league matches to help them win the title and earn promotion to the Premier League. And that first full season with Peter Britzley arriving. Daniel was just ridiculous numbers. Yeah, outrageous. I mean, it was a team under Keegan that was, you know, it was the kind of mullet team, you know, business at the back party at the front. It was, yeah, it was, was actually set out to entertain. He almost gave Cole and Beardsley both free roles in effect and said, look, you two workers are two. Go wherever you want. I trust you implicitly to work together. And that's exactly what happened. It proved a master's stroke from Keegan to give that much freedom to his attackers. Keegan was a striker who always said he had to work incredibly hard just to squeeze everything out of himself. And he basically believed that the natural talent that Beardsley and Cole had was above his own. And he said, look, just go out and do it. And they did so. And we're phenomenally attacking, phenomenally entertaining. Probably a slightly disrespecting my own club here, but probably the greatest promoted team in Premier League history in terms of how they attacked the league and surprised the league at a time when, yes, there probably wasn't as much scouting of the first division by opposition managers. But you can't just wow, just blue teams away. And it was because of that relationship between Beardsley and Cole. They finished third that season, you cross well, in their first season, back up top. Beardsley and Cole had 55 league goals between them. Cole contributing 34 goals, but also 13 or 14 assists. I've seen both numbers listed. Numbers do get a bit shadowy when you go back into the last millennia. But he was the first player to top both the league's goalscoring and assists charts in the same season. I think only four players, including him, have done it since, I've never done it, basically. 41 total goals in all competitions, though, which was the number that Brian Kidd was saying didn't count for anything now that he was an old Trafford. So very kind of like that era, Manchester United sort of, you might have scored 119 goals. We want none of that here, son. We're winners. Throw your medals in the bin. Throw your goals. Get your goals. Get the ball out of the net 41 times and throw the ball in the bin 41 times. I mean, not quite as Brian Kloff coded as that, but an amusing welcome. Now, as Andy was referencing, a man United had a look at that and liked what they saw. 68 goals in 84 appearances for Newcastle, Andy Cole had managed. And on the 10th of January 1995, Newcastle decided to sell him. Why? Why was it, Daniel, that Kevin Keegan found himself on the steps of St James's explaining to the heartbroken jordies. Why their goal hero was on his way? We've done all right, Sulfa. He's been a great player, but please don't think the thing you said there about him playing to get away in that, that is scandalous because honestly, that lad has given everything. He's tried hard at the last probably six or eight weeks, then he has all the time he's been in. I think Cole, I mean, Andy will know the intricacies of Cole's mindset at this point, but I think it's fairly clear that he wanted to move. Everything had happened incredibly quickly for him from the start arsenal to Bristol City with nobody expecting much to basically hitting the ground running and never stopping scoring at that point. And I suspect the move to Manchester United, who at that point were on their way to becoming the unstoppable force of English football, having just completed a double, felt like the natural step for the next big thing of England centre forwarding. And when that sort of offer comes, Manchester United was very, very hard to turn down for a series of players at that point. It did break Newcastle's hearts. Obviously, kind of always rather ends well in terms of their eventual replacement being Sheriff and Blackburn. But it was a bold move from Newcastle at a time because it was basically the first sort of bubble prick of that freewheeling we're going to make Newcastle sing again as a football team era. It had just been rise, rise, rise under Keegan. They made a not quite a title bit, but certainly came close. And the thought was is where did Newcastle go from here? It wasn't who's going to take Newcastle's best players. And Cole was the superstar of the time. The Manchester United very much like signing very good players, but they also really like making a statement of signing the player at the time. I was remember there was a Newcastle fan who had got an Andy Cole tattoo. I think possibly on his calf, the week that he went to Manchester United and he was in the paper. And it's not like it is today where people get banter tattoo, it was knowing that they might end up looking silly. This guy was gutted and really angry. It was like, look what put on me. Like, what are we going to do with this kind of thing? But with the Jordi accent. But with the Jordi accent. I was recollections of this of the moment. And as I say, Keegan coming out to talk to the supporters moment. It was a Newcastle supporter from back in the day saying that he come back from school because in those days there was no internet or anything. He come back from school and his mum and dad had sat in down to tell him the news as if a relative had died, Daniel. I should also say, I mean, this is not a, this is Andy Cole podcast, not a Kevin Keegan podcast. But that was Keegan's decision to go out and face the music as the manager. It wasn't him who wanted to sell any goal. It was the club's decision. And yet it was him who said, I will go out. I am the voice that people listen to. I am the public face of this club. I should be the one to take the flag, which kind of says absolutely everything you need to know about Kevin Keegan. Wait, he did, or the club did receive a record fee in return. It was a new British trance for higher-steva figure, seven million in total, six million cash plus the one million pound rated Keith Gillespie going the other way. Andy, what has, as Andrew talked to you about what was going on for him at the time, there's talk of a rift or an altercation between him and Keegan, for example. A couple of things were going on. You had Paul in saying to him, come to Man United and Andy Cole not taking it very seriously. And then after one game, Andy wasn't feeling great. And Kevin Keegan said, if you don't like it, go home. So he did. He went back to London. And Kevin didn't like that. So the relationship broke down. Now, this is someone who he has a very high opinion of. So when we were on the road recently, I said, it's, it's Kevin's funeral tomorrow. And he just had a moment to himself. I think there's a lot of, of warmth towards Kevin as a manager. And I know that they completely made up years after. But the relationship did go. And then Sir Alex Ferguson heard about this argument. I said, how did he hear? And he said, he thinks that Joe Royal told him another manager. So how on earth Joe Royal found out about this? And he didn't know. So the deal was done quite quickly. And he moved to Manchester and he was going to live in a hotel. But his agents, I know you can stay in the spare room. No problem. And he found out years later that his agent who just made a cut on this huge deal actually charged him to stay in the spare room, which disappointed him a lot. And then he joined him and United. The first January that they went on a mid season break to Spain, they were drinking heavily. And he couldn't believe the team he joined. He just seen all these figures who were world famous footballers completely plastered. And then at the end of the first month he was there, Eric Kansenar had that slight altercation at Salas Park, where he had a disagreement with a fan and to make his feelings quite clear about that. And again, Cole's like, what on earth have I joined here? And then with Kansenar's absence, the onus was uncalled to score the goals. And he actually had a difficult first few months because it took time to settle. There was a lot of pressure there. And his partner was pregnant at the same time. So he was trying to settle into a new city, seize partners in a different city. It was a really difficult time for him. And he was getting a lot of abuse in the media. He never really forgot that. He never forgot the names of the people who were writing the abuse towards him, the criticism which he felt was unfair. Yeah, it was an interesting time for him to be joining Manchester United. He started well halfway through 94 and 95 season coming in, scoring 12 goals in 18 Premier League matches. However, I think what stayed in most United supporters at Manchester United supporters, minds was more the way that season ended with United missing out on the title. And Cole very much the scapegoat for chances that he didn't convert in that last game against West Ham. I mean, it's one of the most traumatic memories of that decade for United fans, that final day of the season, away at Upton Park in the old black umbro kit. And coming up against an inspired ludic meclosco in a West Ham goal, it's United Drew 1-1 with Blackburn losing away at Liverpool. Had they won the game, they would have won the league. And they completely dominated West Ham. Cole came as close as anyone. He had a fantastic shot. They hit the post. He drew a succession of saves out of meclosco, but they just couldn't get, you know, couldn't get the ball in the net. And I think he ended up kind of, you know, it was because he was the player who was thwarted more than any other. He almost came to symbolise that disappointment. And the referee blows his whistle. No title this year for Manchester United for Alex Ferguson, but they came as close as you ever can come to winning in the final minutes here. And it's death threat for the players who've given in absolutely everything on this run-in. Then a week later in the FA Cup final, he's cup tied. United lose to Everton. Finished the season empty handed for the first time in a few years. And so for all the promise of or all the kind of the expectation generated by some of the performances he'd produced and some of the goals he'd scored, he ends up being, you know, one of the symbols of this enormously disappointing campaign. Two and a half years it took before he really, I think, began to live up to the expectations. The price tag no doubt was a factor in that. And something I think, Andy, that weighed heavily on him. There was also the injuries. He had rotten luck catching pneumonia in the summer of, what was that? No, 96. And then getting his leg broken in two places in a reserve game at Anfield. There was also, perhaps, and you'll know better than the rest of us, perhaps, strange relationships within the team. I don't know how well he got on with Eric Cantanar, for example, and Teddy Gsharingham then became something of an issue too. In that period, and also I'd throw in the fact that he hadn't. He'd very much not made friends with the press. And that can be a factor in how you're perceived by members of the public. Was there a time in that kind of two and a half year spell? Was there a time when he came close to being sold, do you think? There was talk of it. And nothing more than that. I think Fergie knew that he had a quality player, but he was also looking at several other players throughout Andy Coles' entire time at Manchester United. I remember being at a preseason in Milan and Word Rent Round that Patrick Clive had absolutely signed for Manchester United. And again, Coles' future was uncertain. And I think he was just used to this constant talk around Manchester United. And he had his own sort of coping mechanisms. He had the faith of Ferguson, of his teammates. They really liked him as a person. You know, as soon as he arrived there, the lads were taking him out. They took him to Liverpool, Basale, to a club called Cree, as soon as he joined Manchester United with a couple of bodyguards, and he said it was one of the best nights of his life. But he missed the birth of his son to play for Manchester United. And he regrets that. And there was pressure put on him. It was like, okay, again, I know you're going to become my dad, but what about the game again, self-ampton at the weekend? And he was just so focused in paying back that transfer fee that he played in the game, but he did have some injuries. That West Ham game, it was unfortunate, but West Ham were fantastic. And Blackburn Rovers did deserve to win the league that year as well. Everyone talks about Manianatting not winning it. That was a brilliant effort from Blackburn Rovers. So when you play centre forward for a huge club like Manianatting, you're going to be ripped apart all the time, unless you're scoring lots of goals. Yeah, even when he was scoring lots of goals, he was still getting abused, which I think was a bit unfair. Absolutely. How did that impact him? He seems quite a sensitive fellow. I just think he wasn't the guy you go through mixed zones and speak, and handshake his favourite journalist. I just don't think he had that type of relationship. He was very much you, you're with me or you're against me, and maybe he used that to motivate him. And his relationship with some of his teammates, which you spoke about, it wasn't always fantastic, but he was his own man and it was a consistent man. And you know, with Teddy sharing him. So Teddy sharing him. Yeah, I think Daniel, were you waving a finger on this? I was just going to say he was also playing at a time in the 90s when neither the media nor the public particularly had any sympathy or any thought about what footballers were thinking or what was happening in their personal lives or where their heads were at. You know, very famously, there are players in that era, Tony Adams, one that really jumps to mind, but Paul McGuire as well, who found things incredibly hard and had no real coping mechanisms. And these were seen as defensive leaders. Paul was never really given anything other than criticism for basically five years, for not quite being the player that people wanted him to be or maybe thought he could be after 93, 94. And yet, we're talking about a guy who scored more and non-polite goals than anyone but Alan Scheer. So that presents that as a kind of, you know, a success of mentality to get through that, to deal with all those kind of slings and arrows that he was getting and to not be like, I'm not going to play the game here. I'm not going to do what you want me to do. I'm just going to kind of do it my way. And at the end of it, he sounds like from what you say Andy, sounds like he's kind of made peace with that as well, which is the best thing at all. Incredibly single-minded sharing him the story, which I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with of how he'd taken offense at the fact that Terry's sharing him hadn't shaken his hand when Andy Cole came on for his first England appearance, sharing him was exiting. And he put out his hand and showing him walk straight past down the tunnel. Kind of brushes past. I mean, he doesn't shake his hand. He doesn't shake his hand. The kind of thing, I mean, I don't think anyone watching would have thought, oh, that's going going to hear about this again. Andy Cole has been on the record saying that what he absolutely felt was everyone watching will have seen me being completely ghosted by an England teammate. And I will never forgive him for that nor will I have a speak to him again. To the extent that if sharing him wanted to get a message even on the field to Andy Cole, he had to pass, he had to speak to Dwight York say, can you get Andy to do whatever? Is that right, Andy? Yeah, I think there were colleagues who didn't get on, but they both acknowledged that they were both exceptional footballers. And he will speak on the record, as will Teddy, about how they were cracking players, brilliant players, top, top level. They will infuse about each other's goals. They just don't want to be mates with each other. They're just cut from a completely different cloth. Their backgrounds are completely different. That doesn't mean that they shouldn't get on, opposites can attract, but those two didn't attract. I've spoken to each of them about each other. And that is their position and part of that is sadness, but they're also incredibly consistent about their viewpoint. You know, you'll hear him going, oh, Teddy fantastic. And when Teddy scored that goal in Camp Nile, the equalizer, he said he was one of the players who was celebrating most despite having been substituted. So there's this weird dynamic. I think when you're a kid, you think that everyone in your favourite football team are all best mates. And then as you grow up, you realise that they just work colleagues and that actually quite a lot of them don't like each other for whatever reason. It did work to an extent on the pitch even if it didn't work on a personal level. What's curious is that when things really began to turn around at Man United 4, Andy Cole was with the arrival of another player who seemed utterly cut from a different cloth to white York. And we'll get onto him and his partnership with Andy Cole next. This is the totally football show part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James PS, Oli K and the very best football writers around. So Dwight York transfers to Manchester United 4, a 12.6 million pound fee at the start of the 1998-1999 season, which as history shows was quite a big one for Manchester United. Cole says, when we started playing together with Dwight York, it was like meeting a special woman and falling in love. Everything felt right. We never had a cross word. And yet these two men were as different as you could hope to find, Daniel. Yeah, they were, but you've got to remember what Dwight York almost accidentally offered, Cole. He first offered him a true goal scorer next to him, not a creative influence, but another goal scorer. So Cole, one of the oddities of Cole's career is that he was never the team's top goal scorer in a title winning season. So he scored six in 96, 97, he then scored 17 and 19, in 99, 99, 99, 2,000. But York is there scoring just what more is in. And I think Andy will back this up. Cole didn't mind that because he had someone to share that responsibility. He also had in York, and I think this is absolutely crucial for Cole's kind of renaissance at United. He had a guy who is, it's probably impossible to find a more relaxed laid-back person than Dwight York. So Cole's there next to someone and he's had Eric, who is, let's say, a fairly intense character. He's then got this guy who's scoring goals for fun, who doesn't seem to be taking it. He doesn't seem to be affected by all these pressures that Cole knows he's had in his Manchester United life. And this is just a theory, and it sounds a little bit too, but I think probably Cole thought, you know what, he seems to be getting it, and he doesn't seem to be letting it bother him. Many of I, you know, maybe I stick around with him. Maybe this, we're a partnership. Maybe that, some of that rubbers off on me and I become this, you know, slightly less, you know, all encompassing overthinking footballer, I can just score goals. And that is what he did for those two league seasons. Andy, that partnership didn't come about naturally, though, did it? No, Fergie stumbled on it at a game of Southampton away. It was like five or six weeks into the treble season, and he just saw something that they've really clicked. That's his cross. Dwight York? Yes, Dwight York scores from Cole's cross. Simply enough, near post goal there. And York really is in a rich vein of form with his new club. Dwight and Andy became very good friends off the field, which transmitted itself onto the field, and became an almost telepathic understanding between the two of them, so I didn't want it to any, and I know a lot of things. People assume that they were the same, they were best mates because Dwight was from Tobago and Andy's family were from Jamaica, but they are totally different as people, but they were good mates. Andy would call Dwight Peter Pan, but Andy's home life was completely different. He was a, that the Vanty was around. So he had a young son, whereas Dwight was going out. Dwight was extremely generous with his, with his affections, I think it's fair to say that publicly. And yet, beautifully put, they, they would combine on a football pitch to the level that Alex Ferguson dreamed of having the team good enough to go to Barcelona away and attacking them. That was his dream. And for the first time in his life, in the autumn of 98, he felt that he had a team capable of doing that. Now him and Cole the night before the game, they were at each other, you're not focused, you're not the issue, not that. And then I sat next to Hugh McElvenny, the great journalist during that game. And he didn't know who I was. I was a young lad, but I was slightly in awe of him. And I loved watching McElvenny purring with delight, just saying brilliant, brilliant, this is brilliant. As Dwight, you're can Andy Cole just cut through. I'm not going to say this great, great basketball team because there have been better basketball on the team, but I've top Barcelona team in camp now. And as a fan, you, you're watching it thinking, this is fantastic because Manchester United had not won a European Cup since 1968. They kept coming closer and closer, they were finishing in the quarters and semis. And then suddenly, if inkin, these lads might be good enough to go all the way here. And partly because of them too, backed up by Teddy Sherringham and Ole Gunnar Solscher. And you can speak to any of them about each other. They're all absolutely glowing. The four of them, they also got a lot of goals. But I think the first choice with respect to the others was Andy and Dwight. It was Solscher and sharing him who are part of the legendary night then in the final. But along the way, as Andy mentions, there was that glorious 3-3 draw in the group stage against Barcelona with possibly the most kind of emblematic goal in terms of the way those two combined, the level of understanding that they had, them just zipping the ball between themselves back and back and forth. It's difficult to think of a goal that demonstrates the strength of understanding in a strike partnership better than that one. United have the ball on the right wing, Roy Keane plays a square pass in towards Dwight York's feet. There have been kind of 25-30 yards from goal here. York steps over the ball. Let's sit run through to Cole. Cole plays it first time down the inside right channel to York who immediately returns it back to him. And Cole's basically all on his own on the penalty spot, sticks it bottom left. I remember just watching it and the thrill of these two players being one or two or three passes ahead of every other player on the pitch was tremendous. Well, let by your said by Cole. Back to Andy Cole from Dwight York. Fantastic goal for Manchester United. Eight minutes to the same half gone. Andy Cole was scorer for combination between Cole and York was out of this world. Marvellous goal. And then the hair off in celebration there was a Ford Focus advert by the side of the pitch. And Andy Cole runs over and kind of points at the focus bit with his massive grin on his face. And Dwight York runs over after him and he's got a massive grin on his face. They're not only playing football from the gods but they're having a laugh on a joke at the same time. And the perfect demonstration of the understanding that existed between the two of them on the football pitch. But when you take in the celebration as well, a demonstration of the extent to which Dwight York enabled Andy Cole to kind of play with a bit less weight on his shoulders. Absolutely. 53 goals the pair of them got in the course of 98, 99 season. We're talking about that as perhaps the most emblematic goal. The game that stands out from that campaign beyond the final prior to the final is the performance in Chorin from two goals down to three two winners against one of the all-time great Juventus sides. And once again, you saw Cole and York coming together in spectacular fashion and this one. Thomas learners inside again at 29th and May 1968. And last time York is get through. It's Dwight York. He's brought down by Peruzzi. Cole is finishing off. Cole speed ahead Barcelona. Manchester United are in sight of the European Cup Final again. Andy Cole has surely made that a certainty now. It's the best game that I've ever seen as a Manchester United fan and a sat in the main stands surrounded by all these Juventus fans and I can't understand Italian but when their team were two and a lot having been easily the better team in the first like an old Trafford, I understood as they looked at me they were saying, look, we know you've not we know you support quite a good team but we're Juventus and you know and we're really sorry and they were very kind with me because we were two and a lot after 11 minutes for Insagi and then Roy Keen had what I think was his best other game for Manchester United. Interestingly Keen and Cole got on really well. Keen used to mown at York all the time, never, ever mown at Cole. They completely got on with each other and still do. And then Cole got the goal after 83 minutes which meant the score line was Juventus to Manchester United for a full steam ahead Barcelona. Cole would always say that some of those Juventus players were the best that he ever came up against some of the toughest players he ever came up against but that was a game for the ages and he uses the term when he describes that we pulverise them and Juventus were the best team in the world by most measurements at that time. And Manchester United ran away to a first European Cup final since 1968 and Andy Cole was a key key part of that. Finally it all come together Daniel. Yeah it hadn't and in hindsight that all feels like destiny. Actually it was it was one man basically wrestling control of his own fate at that point managing to there's this kind of weird dichotomy of Cole's career and that we see it in as this someone who occasionally was forced to deal with pressure and weight that he didn't necessarily certainly didn't ask for and almost certainly didn't deserve. He's also a guy who his international career has looked upon unfavorably as a result and yet basically two of Manchester United's biggest games in their history. He's he's absolutely there is like on the dominant forces and doing everything that's been asked of him. Almost it's like perfect spurgs and specimen to peak at the right moment which yeah it just makes you incredibly happy for him because he yeah he went through quite a lot until then and you sort of assume I think with players you and he said it about teammates being good friends. You also assume that when a team wins a title or wins trophy that every player feels 100% happy about every trophy they win but actually the ones inevitably because this is how human nature worked. The ones where you feel special where you feel part of it where you feel like it wasn't just Eric coming back from the suspension and he was the difference maker it wasn't Beckham and Skulls and midfield or key when you feel actually part of it that must just absolutely put you on top of the world so yeah so happy for him. Manchester United are the champions of Europe again. You're listening to the totally football show with James Richards and now with you four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious technicolor on YouTube at the totally show. Yeah another two and a half seasons after the triple winning campaign now you think I'll try for what what happened it never quite hit the same heights again for him. They're all saw that they didn't retain the European Cup. Real Madrid knocked them out the following year and they went to Brazil in the World Club Championship where they seemed to have a lot of fun without playing so much football. Rude Van Nistor Roy was brought in and Manchester United began to shift tactically. Juan Sebastian Verón came in with Van Nistor Roy in the summer of 2001 and Ferguson felt that European football was was shifting and was trying this 451 formation which was almost the opposite of the the famous 442 which had served Manchester United so well. So he had lots of interest and Blackburn Rovers had a lot of money at the time. He was living in Manchester so he wasn't the first person to go from Manchester United to Blackburn Rovers. Dwight York also made the same journey and but I do think there are some regrets that he didn't stay longer at Old Trafford viewed with the benefit of hindsight and I think his relationship with Graham Sunis wasn't the best when he was at Blackburn Rovers but he moved around several clubs and he continued to score. He certainly scored loads of goals when he arrived at Blackburn. Yeah he also you talk about Shira and Cole at the start of their career, one following the other at Newcastle. The astonishing feat of Shira's career was how he managed to change and shape his game after injury so he starts off as a poacher then becomes an all round forward after one bad injury then more bad injury and he becomes this target man in late career at Newcastle. Cole sort of did the same again underrated. He's this complete player you know this fantasy player at Newcastle assisting and creating and scoring. He then becomes a pure goal scorer United because that's what Ferguson wants and then at Blackburn he became more of a target man. He couldn't run the channels or running behind as much so he became this kind of physical striker and made that work as well. Since then they struggled to create chances. There's one here for Blackburn, it stumps into the area, Cole's up there, he's got to be, he's got to be. As he's still got it by Joe, he's got it Andy Cole doubting in right place, right time scores his first goal for Blackburn Rovers and that's why they played Manchester United 8 million pounds. I was going to ask Andy if it might be preempting here Jones but does he have any regrets do you think about playing for Manchester City given everything that he'd achieved at United? I think he did it in the right way so what annoys Manchester City fans is that when Peter Schmeigel played for Manchester City he was perceived to over celebrate a goal in Manchester Derby and Manchester City which both of them joined were very different to the Manchester City have now. They were not really a threat to Manchester United even though they had some notable Derby victories and Cole felt criticism from City fans when he arrived and he felt the best thing to do was just be to do what he does best but his head down worked hard and I think City fans appreciated that so it never became a talking point either among Blues or among Reds in the same way that it did for Peter Schmeigel for example it's not really used against him and he wasn't there for that long I think he was only there for a season before he moved on to Port Smith but I just think he gave it his all and I think that they appreciated it and Man United fans were not paying that much attention interestingly I've spoke to him about his time at City and he remembered a time where a gentleman called Pat Guadiola turned up on trial to play and was politely declined by Manchester City no not quite for us on making his name elsewhere whatever happened to him Andy so Andy Cole along the way part of some historically good sides making some historically good campaigns one team that he never really stood out for Daniel was England is it 15 caps only what why was that I mean firstly and very simply the depth of attacking talent was so extraordinary that if you didn't hit the ground running in that England team it didn't mean you were a bad striker it just meant that there was two or three people knocking on the manager's door to say well if he won't score I will England weren't as strong certainly until you know between 96 and 98 they wobbled and sheer and sheering and felt like the combination until Owen came along as the boy wonder and England had had a succession of you know boy wonder center forwards at that point and Cole just never really got a look at it I think actually the talk of that England career kind of sums up the whole thing which is that we had a real problem in the 90s and 2000s and to some extent we sort of still do in that with English footballers we tend to look at where they maybe didn't surpass our expectations and rather than where they did so we don't look at Cole's 187 Premier League goals we go how come he didn't score that much for England the reality is is that Alan Shearer was phenomenal for England and everything was built off that and Cole didn't take his chances as early enough but I don't I don't get the sense he and he's about to completely disagree with me here but I don't get the sense that that's like a complete nagging regret for for Cole necessary and I mean he was obviously very proud to represent his country and he won't show you the love to have 50 caps and scored 25 goals but it never really felt like an option I'd agree with that Daniel I think you would do injuries as well at key times I think the England set was very divided one you had the man United camp you had the Liverpool camp and nothing that helped anybody and you did have Alan Shearer as well who was the main man but when I speak to him I don't get a sense of regrets that things didn't work out better for England I'm sure his father would have loved him to play for Jamaica and not England some maybe does a regret there in fact his father wanted him to be a cricketer and not a footballer so that's how the family felt quite strongly about it but I think his focus was Manchester United and there was a quote from Glenn Hoddle about Cole which I think comes from the time when Hoddle was England manager and was overlooking Cole or not giving him as many opportunities as Cole might have wanted and he said that the problem with Andy Cole was he needed five chances to score a goal right and I think one of the issues that people had when they were trying to assess Cole as a footballer was that there was something a little bit unrefined about his technique he would occasionally look a little bit clumsy he'd occasionally have an air shot but he was also capable of scoring the most difficult goals striking the ball so purely and he would occasionally have games where you know he squandered a couple of chances and then scored and scored the most difficult one but that quote from Hoddle seemed to really stick in the public consciousness and I I can't think of another single remark by a football coach that has clung to a player as much as that quote clung to Cole and I think a lot of people just decided that yeah that was that was it that's why Cole hasn't had England career and I you know it wasn't justified but I think it really haunted him it's pretty singular to have a national team coach or manager actually speaking so directly in such critical terms of a player who is essentially there for selection perhaps not the happiest moment there from Hoddle but delighted to know that that didn't unduly upset Andy Cole as his career progressed as you say it all came to an end after a spell at Manchester City and then there was Portsmouth, Sunderland and then after a brief spell with Nottingham Forest in the late Naughties and he hung up his boots and he's been through some challenges since then not least a week on the road with you and he met in Ireland what so what was the purpose of your trip? We were doing a night with Andy Cole and I was interviewing him and getting him to tell stories from his career and from his life and I just said to people turn your phones off and you'll really enjoy this and that is exactly what happened because he does have stories he's very funny he's very dry he has these relationships with people that are quite surprising such as his one with Roy Keane and he can tell the war stories from great Manchester United moments but also for the other clubs that he played for as well I think he was at Burnley on loan as well and Sunderland where he ends up with Roy Keane as his manager but refusing to call him manager because he's like you the same age as me I can't call you manager I'm just going to call you skip is that I'm not you skip pretty more on your manager so they have this ridiculous argument about what they're going to call each other and they seem to gel and then he had health issues as well and I just stayed in touch with him throughout I want to say I'm a close friend of his but I would say I'm a friend and I really like him and I could have chosen pretty much any man United player within reason to travel around and do this and I thought that Andy would be a good person to do it and I didn't regret that and you know it's weird you know I'll meet you at court care mate I booked you on a Ryanair and part of your brains going can Andy call fly Ryanair well of course he can't and there's no DVD man's whatsoever and then he comes through him can I put him up in a travel lodge yeah of course I can not an issue at all and put him in the spare road Andy yeah famously yeah yeah and charge him for it as well when are you next going on the road with Andy well we stayed in student accommodation in court because court is very expensive and I'm very conscious of the fact that we've got a better hotel tomorrow night Andy in Dublin but there were no complaints at all and because he missed out on that raven bell fast we went to dairy so I'm driving him around dairy and I'm saying this is the bog side and this is why it's important in British history and Irish history and he's like my Caribbean mind can just not comprehend this so we're talking about it all and I really like that side of it and then we're going to invite to another raven dairy okay I'm coming to this one and the demographic was a little bit older not quite our age and we sort of stood at the back and I'm very conscious that he's been recognised by a few people and the last thing I want is people coming up and having one-way conversations within where they say you're Andy Cole I remember when you did this because I knew at that point it's just like it's time to go but we had a good hour in dairy by the bog side him at a rave with local DJs and I'm sort of thinking this is good fun this we had a good week I enjoyed it I hope that he enjoyed it as well and I think there's a lot of depth to him as a person and he can draw on on a pretty incredible life story started out he was in the national school when he was a kid he was an arsenal as well and he just tells funny stories about characters all along the way and he didn't get on with anyone you can probably gather that about if he doesn't like you then he doesn't like you and you know when he speaks about some of the people are arsenal he doesn't like them and others he does but I think that's interesting and when you've got that that tension and even between him and I where he's pointing at me on the stage going what right of you what qualifications have you got to critique my game and I'm suddenly finding myself really defensive what's your answer to that Andy well he his his book bear is how you qualified to rate me out of ten yeah and I'm like well I've got a job to do with that job I earn money and I buy food and then I feed my children when I'm not on a stage doing stuff like this and I am from a football family unlike you from a cricket family so I do know what I'm watching and he's like you've got no idea of the instructions that I've been given before I've gone out onto that pitch you can't possibly watch 14 players and critique them accurately it's just impossible to do and I'm losing the argument and he's got the crowd on side as well because people like footballer's more than they like journalists and then he's coming at me and I sort of move on anyway mate let's talk about the game in Jarin where you scored that goal Daniel as somebody who rates players and indeed entire teams with no knowledge at all of what was said in the dressing and pre-game what is the answer the answer is that football only happens because people watch it and people watch it because they have opinions on it so the great universality of football is that if you try hard enough you're allowed to have an opinion on anything and people will either listen to it or not and Andy's allowed to say they're rubbish and we're allowed to say we're allowed to do them and we can agree to meet in the middle on the stage in Dublin I guess excellent excellent well it's been lovely to get your thoughts on Andy Cole Daniel and Andy Mitten and Tom we posed a question at the start of the show given that Dwight York and Andy Cole only combined assisted each other for nine goals nine Premier League goals and the course of their time together who were the most prolific partnerships in Premier League history I've got five goal-scoring couples here who wants to shout out Cane and Sonne yes Cane and Sonne are in there and you know where they are at the top add the very very top 47 goal combinations the Harry Kane and young men son dropper and lampard must drop a lampard or in the second place very good just the 36 for DDA in Frank I am the other one I will be one I think he always it with a Salah Firminio Manoe but it's whether they sort of shared them out between three of them that's the problem I think that's the problem there there's three more couples here none of them ever played none of them turned out for Liverpool though errow and agrarian either silver or deployner I guess and david silver yeah agrarian silver 29 goal combinations from Manchester City in third spot equal with one other famous well were they that famous actually of course cherry on re is involved in the partnership that they are joint third with agrarian silver but with who but with whom share with with with will told or with berkamp not will told Perez with Perez for all Perez and cherry on re 29 goal combinations for our sort the one other would have been first if they're not cocked up that penalty in a in at number five on the most prolific partnership in the premier league chart what club what club spurs defoing key no erickson and cane it's a player we've already talked about in the course of this podcast err a man United player who also turned out for spurs and had a very prolific partnership with a midfielder while there a midfielder who wasn't always fit sharing him and it's him yes sharing him and and it's him 27 goal combinations for team cut yeah in terms of in terms of level of clue he's not always fit it was quite a give it away if I'm pretty sure the press of understatement if anything well yeah absolutely anyway there you go well I hope that was to your uh satisfaction quiz wise Tom I have to say I found this incredibly illuminating because I am one of those people who Andy Cole know of his goalscoring exploits but never really associate him with camp new you think of sharing him and solshar so many other areas you think of other players whether it's canton are etc with when we're talking man United and then sheerah becomes the dominant figure in in kind of Newcastle recollections but he was there and he was doing it and I'm glad we were able to acclaim him today absolutely yeah there's a video that producer Charlie centers as part of our part of our prep not that we get spoon fed with information or anything and it's Andy Cole's greatest Premier League goals so only about five minutes long if you've enjoyed the podcast I would recommend seeking that what should you google it's like Andy's Andy Cole's greatest Premier League goals and it's five minutes of just wall to wall bangers and I suspect there'll be a lot of goals in there that people even people who remember watching Cole will have forgotten about so well worth well worth five minutes of your time brilliant and when you're going on the road once again with Andy and we're doing something I think in Wales next year I'll keep in touch with him I spoke to him yesterday I told him I'm doing this and he's like you know you know me you know I am if you want to do it do it I said I'm doing it anyway you don't have a choice in this all right forgot another little thing there's a bit of a highlight for him this year he loved Ronaldo the original Ronaldo and he came across him in social circles this year and Ronaldo came up to him when Cole and I reckon that was almost like winning the treble he was absolutely buzzing that Ronaldo knew who he was and it's quite nice where he tells you that brilliant and recall if you're listening to this uh many thanks for your goals and everything you've done splendid Andy thank you for parts is betting enjoy yourself there in Barcelona and back in Manchester when you return home and Daniel will be seeing you soon on the totally football show listen I hope you'll be joining us again perhaps for another totally extra we churn these out regularly throughout the season for now though that brings us to the end of this particular story so from Wallows here it's goodbye you've been listening to the totally football show part of the athletic FC podcast network for more great podcasts just like this one including the athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts search for the athletic on Apple Spotify and all the usual places we're also at the totally football show on Insta and at the totally show on YouTube the totally football 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