Andrew Cole takes a moment to consider how much, or how little, he cares. For nearly 20 years, he set the standard for Premier League goalscorers.
His 34 goals for Newcastle in 1993-94 left a mark for others to follow and one that, until now, no one had surpassed.
Only Alan Shearer could match it the following year. That was until a 6ft 4in Viking with a ponytail arrived at Manchester City. Since then most records, including Cole’s, have fallen to Erling Haaland.
How does it feel to see your record of almost two decades broken?
‘I couldn’t give a f***,’ says Cole. ‘I’m being honest. I am not anal in any way, shape or form about someone breaking goal-scoring records because records are set to be broken.
Andy Cole held the record for the most Premier League goals in a season for nearly 30 years
He netted 34 in the 1993/94 season, a record matched only by Alan Shearer until recently
‘Now, some people might be p*ssed. But people say I must be disappointed. Why? Because someone has scored more goals than me? It’s taken 20 years for someone to get that close. Am I going to rock myself to sleep and think, Oh God, someone has broken my record? No, I’ll take my hat off to him. I’ll salute him. He’s done it in a team that creates chance after chance. At some stage, your record’s going to be broken.’
You wonder if his elite goalscoring peers would feel the same. Some, as he puts it, might be p*ssed. If Harry Kane breaks Alan Shearer’s all-time Premier League record you sense words of congratulations might come through a more gritted smile.
But then there has always been something different about Cole. By his own admission, he never sought the limelight. ‘I never saw myself as an individual,’ he says.
That comes across when Cole speaks about one of his biggest achievements at Manchester United: the club’s Champions League triumph in 1999, the final leg of their Treble that Manchester City are on course to emulate.
United’s stunning victory over Bayern Munich in the Nou Camp forms part of a new BT film called Back Into the Sunshine that looks at how that night ended English clubs’ wait for European glory following their ban in the wake of the Heysel disaster in 1985. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced Cole to score the late winner.
‘It was special, unbelievable,’ says Cole. ‘I remember saying that I got to the corner flag before Ole did. Ah, mate, it was so, so special. I know a lot is made of Ole and Teddy [Sheringham] getting the goals in the final but, for me, it made no difference. The one individual who scores the goal doesn’t just win, the whole team wins. You still get the same accolades as everyone else.’
Is that true? Everyone gets a winner’s medal but it’s Solskjaer’s name that lives in history, on replays and in commentary. It is Solskjaer, after all, who Clive Tyldesley declares ‘has won it’.
It is another example of how Cole’s mindset differs from other legendary strikers. How many times have you heard Shearer or Gary Lineker say they were grumpy if the team won but they didn’t score? ‘If you are going to think like that,’ says Cole, ‘you might as well play golf. But that’s just me. I’ve always perceived myself as a team player and that will never change.’
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland has finally broken the record, with 36 goals in just 35 games
He became the first player to be crowned Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season
Perhaps that is what often keeps Cole out of the conversation of greatest strikers in Premier League history. Shearer’s name is always there, so too Thierry Henry and Wayne Rooney, Sergio Aguero, Harry Kane, Michael Owen. And Andrew Cole? Only Shearer, Kane and Rooney have scored more Premier League goals.
Take away penalties – Cole scored one – and only Shearer scored more. Only Haaland has scored more in a season. Cole has five Premier League titles, two FA Cups and a Champions League and was part of United’s Treble-winning side in 1999. Does he think he didn’t get the credit he deserves?
‘Do you want me to be honest with you,’ he asks.
‘Of course.’
‘Do you want me to be brutally honest?’
‘Yes.’
‘It’s a game. People have played this game with me for many years. If you look at everything I’ve achieved in my career, there’s no striker I played against who achieved what I achieved and doesn’t get the accolades I should be getting.
‘Not one. If you talk about numbers, which everyone does, they stack up. If we’re talking about achievements, there’s no one achieved more than me. So, how can people talk about me as if I was very fortunate to be able to achieve what I achieved?
‘People talk about Haaland finally breaking the record. Unbelievable. He’s been a breath of fresh air to the Premier League.
‘People talk as if I wasn’t the first to do it. I was the first to do it and in a newly-promoted team. How hard would that be to score 34 goals in a Premier League season with no penalties? I get why people do it. I know what it is.
‘I know there’s an agenda. Because everything stacks up on my side. I know what I achieved. If you achieve so much how can people talk about others who haven’t achieved as much? I’ve been retired now for many years and people still don’t want to give me my flowers.’
Cole (above, right) played in the famous treble-winning United team in 1999
The 51-year-old believes that the achievements of his United side are being ‘disrespected’
Cole believes his race played a part. And because he refused to give interviews during his playing days, people branded him arrogant. He felt the media was out to get him. He takes issue with stories last week under headlines that claimed he had urged United not to sign Harry Kane this summer.
‘I didn’t say that,’ he says. ‘I said it depends on what way Manchester United want to go. Do they want to go youthful? If so, look at Victor Osimhen at Napoli. If they want to look at here and now then Harry Kane, who turns 30 in July. If they buy Kane now, then in two years they will be in the same position, trying to bring someone else in who could cost another £100million. What makes business sense? That is what I tried to say.
‘United have never replaced Robin van Persie. Everyone has been a stop-gap for a year or two years. You can’t sustain doing that to win major tournaments. Look at Man City now. Haaland is 22 on a five-year contract. You build your team around him. United have to decide how they want to go about it. Even if United do buy Kane, he doesn’t guarantee you the league. If they buy Kane and Declan Rice, for instance, does that catapult you to above Man City? The gap to them is still bigger.’
Cole takes issue, too, with the constant comparisons between United’s Treble-winning side under Sir Alex Ferguson that won the league, FA Cup and Champions League and the current City team chasing the same trophies.
‘The craziest thing is everyone’s trying to forget about what Manchester United achieved and the possibility of another team doing it and how this other team is far superior to the United team that actually achieved it,’ he says.
He would back his United side to beat City. ‘Of course, I’m going to sit here and say United. The eras are totally different, too. What you have to look at, too, is out of our ’99 team, how many were home-grown talents? Six? So, you don’t pay £50m, £60m, £70m for these players. If you look at how much money Man City have spent to find themselves in this position. In ’99, that couldn’t have been done. And because we had so much home-grown talent we didn’t have to spend that money.’
When it comes to a combined XI, Cole follows the lead of Gary Neville who listed all the United players. ‘I wouldn’t change what that team achieved. We’re the first team to do it and until someone else actually does it, we’re still the best team. You see all the nonsense people are saying.
On United’s infamous win in 1999, Cole said the identity of the scorer made little difference
‘What makes me laugh is they talk about this ’99 team as if it was bang average. That’s just the disrespect people have for Manchester United and even more so that team.’
Cole conducts our interview in the stands at St James’ Park, where he set the early standard for Premier League goalscoring and a stadium that will next season host the Champions League group stages for the first time since 2002-03.
He has been impressed by Eddie Howe and the way the owners have spent their new-found riches. ‘They’ve not gone crazy,’ he says.
The conversation turns to racism and the treatment of Vinicius Junior, who was left in tears after abuse from Valencia fans. Afterwards, the Real Madrid winger declared racism had become normal in La Liga – he faces it most weeks – only to be accused of ‘insulting’ the organisation by league president Javier Tebas, who has since apologised. ‘Am I surprised? No,’ says Cole. ‘I’ve got nothing to be surprised about.
‘The comments coming from the league, wow. Basically it’s all your fault and if you don’t play football or celebrate the way you do, everything’s going to be fine. But if you upset the fans, they are entitled to racially abuse you. That’s what I’m hearing. It’s disgusting. The comments from the league? Pathetic. Unfortunately, that’s the world we live in. Until people decide they actually want to do something, it will continue.’
Cole has been through it. He has seen his dad, Lincoln, go through it after he came to England from Jamaica as part of the Windrush generation. That is what has given him the mindset to deal with troubles in his life, like the struggles, mentally and physically, since his kidney failed in 2015 and he had a transplant in 2017. His nephew Alexander, aged 26 at the time, donated his kidney. Cole’s marriage fell apart in the middle of it all.
‘There’s still good and bad days,’ says Cole, who started his own fund to help people with kidney disease. ‘It’s hard but I’m still here, I’m still cracking on, I’m still speaking my mind. There’s days when getting out of bed is a bit of a struggle, there’s days when you don’t want to do certain things. But you have got to crack on, I have got to enjoy whatever I have got left in me.
‘I’ve surrounded myself with so many good people now. At the start, that’s what I was missing. Everything becomes a little easier. Every day is not an easy day, there is never any plain sailing with this. But life’s a lot better now.’
When Cole was ill, his son Devante lost his contract at Manchester City. Cole remembers lying in bed, hardly able to move, as his son looked down at him and asked: ‘Dad, what do I do?’ Cole promised himself he’d make sure his son was OK. Eight years later, Devante will walk out at Wembley for Barnsley in the League One play-off final on Monday. The 28-year-old has scored 16 goals this season.
Cole’s son Devante (above) will play for Barnsley in the League One play-off final on Monday
The in-form 28-year-old has scored 16 goals this season as the Colliers finished fourth
Cole will be there. He would not miss it for the world. He will feel more nerves watching Devante at Wembley than he ever did walking out for a big game himself.
‘I was having this conversation with Peter Schmeichel,’ he says. ‘The crazy thing is you look at your kids’ achievements more than you do your own. I know what he’s been through, he’s not built like me. He deals with stuff differently. When he walks out at Wembley, I’ll be a real proud man. I’m hoping and praying they get promoted.
‘I’ve experienced the highs and the lows and achieved things that I never believed I would. So, if my son and his team were good enough to get promoted, that would be massive.’
That, more than anything, is something to care about.
Back Into The Sunshine, the latest in the BT Sport Films series, premieres on BT Sport 1 at 10pm on Sunday.
