The rise and fall of Andy Cole

The news that Premier League and Manchester United legend 37-year-old veteran, Andrew Cole was sacked by his home town club, Nottingham Forest, went slightly under the radar. He signed for the club this summer, played only 10 games mostly from the bench and didn’t score a single goal.

Andy Cole Man United

Old Andy just couldn’t settle, having hard time to accept that, due to his undergoing age and the fitness, no coach would put him in the starting line-up. In his entire career, he changed even 12 Premiership and Championship teams, and he was the man to score most goals in the Premier League after Alan Shearer. He was also crowned European Champion in 1999 with Manchester United. At the time, he was the owner of the highest transfer fee in England (when he signed for Man Utd from Newcastle in 1995), while his seven blooming years saw him grabbing all three important titles in England (with Manchester United and Blackburn) plus the Champions League trophy. After his successful season with Fulham in 2004/05 the descend of this classy striker commenced, when he was unable to settle down and push for his place in the team.

He also had a spell with Devils’ most fiery rivals, Manchester City, where he had a good start to the season, but a serious injury stopped him in 2006. He didn’t get the right chance next year with Portsmouth, so he went to Birmingham City, who were fighting for promotion, and he scored one goal in five games at St Andrews.

Penning the deal with Sunderland, helmed by Devils’ former skipper Roy Keane, saw him being reunited with his old partner Dwight York a year after that. However, Cole had problems with coach and players, so he played only seven games in the first part of the season. January 2008 brought the new deal with Burnley which finally saw some of that good, old Andy. He played 13 games, scored 6 goals, bagging his first hat-trick in the entire career against QPR in February (4-2).

Andy Cole N. Forrest

Nomad Andy again had problems communicating with the teammates, even his own wife, since he had problems with law due to allegations of physical abuse. This summer brought his boyhood dream come true when he put on the red shirt of his home town club, Nottingham Forest who came back with high ambitions to the Coca Cola Championship after four years.

Since then, nothing! He wasn’t fit at the start of the season, picked up an injury and when he was finally recovered and fit enough to play, dismal Forest swallowed him and he showed absolutely nothing. After a couple of more games he watched from the bench, manager Colin Calderwood stopped even counting on him. For the victorious outing to London against Crystal Palace 2-1 (which could be a certain comeback and escape from the bottom for the Foresters), Andy Cole didn’t even travel with the team.

Excellent career is coming to its end and no one knows if any side from Championship or lower could agree terms with this stubborn veteran and sign him. Is his age the only problem, or maybe his temper and behavior…we don’t know…I’d say the latter…

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