He didn't, bar the season Blackburn won the year.
But between Blackburn and Newcastle they had some title attempts and both teams were totally based around his strengths.
United never were with Cole, not like Newcastle were when they had him.
Andy Cole - premier league hall of famer
- Thread starter pacifictheme
- Start date
He didn't, bar the season Blackburn won the year.
But between Blackburn and Newcastle they had some title attempts and both teams were totally based around his strengths.
United never were with Cole, not like Newcastle were when they had him.
Previously United were built around Cantona and after Cole left they certainly built a team around first RVN and then Ronaldo. Have you ever wondered why?
I like Cole. He was an excellent forward and the prototype of the modern striker ie a guy who was good in everything (pace, workrate, a decent eye for goal etc) but didn't really excel in anything. But he was a notch down to the likes of Shearer, Batistuta and RVN, all of whom were players SAF either replaced Cole with or at least tried.
Yes I wouldn't even dare to try and argue differently to your last post.
RVN came in and scored way more goals. Although it does have to be remembered he was basically a lone frontman and Cole always played in a 2.
I don't necessarily agree that we'd have won more with Shearer though. We already won most of the domestic stuff and you always needed everything to go right in Europe. In an era of properly good opponents.
Cole was an excellent player but Shearer was a beast, at par, to batistuta. I dare to say that he was even better then RVN as he possessed his eye for goal but he could also drop deep and help out.
Regarding trophies, well, a Shearer would probably score against Dortmund in that CL semi final. Once that was in the bag then we would have gone face to face against an excellent juventus whose renowned in bottling CL finals
This is true but it is one of the odd things about football that having a great goalscorer as the focal point doesn't always make the team better. Utd at the time were all about the variation in attack, goals and creativity coming from everywhere, and Cole was a huge part of that, could drop into and be more effective in different spaces than those huge names, formed excellent partnerships with pretty much every forward he played with other than Cantona and had an unselfish, team first mentality.
Shearer and Batistuta come in and suddenly a large portion of the attacks are funneled towards them, the team becomes more predictable, we saw this gradually with RVN, and yes there were other elements in play, start of transition, in make up of the team and guys like Giggs and Scholes changing their game but a more rounded attack is always the better option in my opinion. What Shearer and co would give is match winning moments in big games but I am far from certain that the team would have been better or scored more goals over a season.
Building around guys like Cantona and Ronnie is a different thing to Shearer/Batistuta and RVN, the first 2 offered much more than goals alone.
Good point.
It's too simplistic to say we'd have won more with Shearer. There's every chance we actually wouldn't have won the treble we did, as there were so many butterfly effect moments in that run as it was, so a major change like Shearer would have meant at least one of Cole or Solskjaer weren't around. We may not have bought Yorke either who was a huge part of that season.
I see Shearer as a ahh yeah it would have been nice.
But players like Hazard and Robben are more of a miss for me as we had way inferior players than them starting in those positions afterwards.
I noticed that I’m on 999 posts and thought what better way to bring up the 1,000 (only took me 16 years!) than to post a Cole compilation.
Watching this again reminds me just how great he was.
Watching this again reminds me just how great he was.
I remember being amazed at how much he moves when he doesn't have the ball. Went to a match around 2000 and him and giggsy would just keep swapping position all games, ran the defence ragged.
Very clever player.
The variety of finishes is pretty crazy. I'd say it'd be a bit of a nightmare to try and predict what he was going to do.
He was brilliant in the 99 season. But watching the video…he appears to be individually on another level 99/00 with some absolute bangers that season
Just checked…yep
In the league
99 17 in 32
00 19 in 28
Just checked…yep
In the league
99 17 in 32
00 19 in 28
Finishing, heading, left foot, right foot, pace, technique, great sense for positioning in penalty box .....100 mil striker these days.
Interesting take Andycoleno9
Only one thing repeats often; bottom corner of the net.
When you look all his goals it is pretty impressive how many times he managed to hit the ball in bottom corner.
Well deserved!
I remember how happy I was when we bought him, fantastic footballer.
I remember how happy I was when we bought him, fantastic footballer.
One of the most underrated players ever to put on a United shirt
Great memories, remember going mental at OT when he got his first goal for us after a bit of a wait. That game against Coventry where he got the second and the winner was also a highlight in his early time at the club.
Mad it's 30 Years Ago that Andy Cole signed from Newcastle for £6m plus Keith Gillespie going in the opposite direction as part of the deal.
One of my favourite football related memories that transfer. He was a machine at Newcastle.
I remember the complete disbelief that it actually happened, was a crazy transfer at the time.
Record fee £7 million at the time and worth every penny. I think Shearer went for £15 from Blackburn to Newcastle. Cole and Yorke possibly the best partnership we had? Ronaldo, Rooney and tevez maybe equal.
The good old days where you wouldn’t hear months of transfer speculation and nonsense. A press conference was called and you wouldn’t know who was going to turn up until they were sat at the desk. That transfer came out of nowhere and was so memorable!
His relationship with Yorke was phenomenal but I also thought him and Cantona were exceptional together whenever they played.
He was electric!
I’m sure I remember at the time a Newcastle fan had just got a tattoo of Cole the length of his thigh right before the transfer 
But yes, his synergy with Yorke was fantastic, just completely natural and devastating. I do miss strike partnerships in today’s football.
Edit: found it Tattoo
But yes, his synergy with Yorke was fantastic, just completely natural and devastating. I do miss strike partnerships in today’s football.
Edit: found it Tattoo
He was outstanding.
At football, his music, not so much.
At football, his music, not so much.
In all the years since this came out I never actually listened to it until just now. It wouldn’t have been that bad if it wasn’t for the parts that have Andy Cole on it
time flies. thirty years!
Wasn't top of my wishlist of strikers at the time..mainly because in late 1994 it seemed inconceivable Newcastle would sell their star striker.
Les Ferdinand, Stan Collymore, Dennis Bergkamp & Matthew le Tissier more gettable, were my faves at the time.
Pleasantly surprised when we went out and got Cole.
Took him a while to get going. After a tough first two years he started to do the business.
1997 onwards he was top class (outstanding)
Wasn't top of my wishlist of strikers at the time..mainly because in late 1994 it seemed inconceivable Newcastle would sell their star striker.
Les Ferdinand, Stan Collymore, Dennis Bergkamp & Matthew le Tissier more gettable, were my faves at the time.
Pleasantly surprised when we went out and got Cole.
Took him a while to get going. After a tough first two years he started to do the business.
1997 onwards he was top class (outstanding)
Definitely.
I actually saw Coley in the flesh at Wycombe's ground last year - when he turned up to see his son play!
It was about 1min to kick off and literally just me and him outside the stadium walking in opposite directions.
I had about 5 seconds to decide if I'd say anything, ask anything, or just stare.
I quickly remembered the whole "Andy v Andrew" thing, and definitely wasn't going to shout "Coley" out at my age. So just stared and trundled into the game a bit shocked!
When you see lack of strikers on the market these days and how some average strikers are going for 50-60 million; how much Cole would worth these days? 100 mil?
He would be easily in top 7 or 8 best strikers in the world today.
He would be easily in top 7 or 8 best strikers in the world today.
One of my favourite United players of all time (and I go back a long way). I always felt he was underrated. He had an incredible range of skills and that elusive eye for goals that was valuable then and would be (almost literally ) priceless today.
and it was even better as it was when we found stuff out using ceefax. None of this months of twitter speculation and journos posting up for internet clout
I don't think there are 5 strikers in the world today better then Coley at his peak. He wasn't just a striker/finisher, he was an all round footballer.
Me neither and you know what, maybe my ears have been -deadened- by endless streams of nu-wave rappers on full autotune but it really isn't that bad is it? Like if Will Smith was putting the lyrics out this might even be a good summertime tune. Coles not as bad as you'd think though!In all the years since this came out I never actually listened to it until just now. It wouldn’t have been that bad if it wasn’t for the parts that have Andy Cole on it
i love Andy (he prefers Andrew though), probably one of the most underrated players in the clubs history as he seem to be surrounded by more iconic (but not better) strikers like Ole, Ruud, Teddy and Yorkie. I still remember the Friday evening he signed from Newcastle out of the blue for 7M, no Pogba or Sancho style saga there. His development and technical improvement over the seasons he was here was a joy to behold. A true great and given his trophy haul and contribution should go down as a club legend.
I was in the bath listening to the BBC on the wireless when the news came through. I thought Fergie was going to bring in Collymore from Forest so it was a surprise to learn we'd signed Andy Cole. We played our cards very close to our chest back then.
Glenn Hoddle peddled that "needs 5 chances to score a goal" bollocks and people ran with it.
Other than Ruud he's my favourite United Striker, arguably a better all round striker than Ruud as he could score all kinds of goals, long range, overhead kicks, chips, tap ins, headers, the lot. If he'd taken penalties throughout his career, he'd be up there with Shearer.
yeah, the way he developed from a run-into-space speed merchant when he first joined to a technically brilliant all round forward was a credit to both himself and SAF/SAF's staff. I don't recall too many players who year on year consistently improved their game (Ronaldo probably). Some of his passing and movement from 99 on was outstanding. He was best known as a 9 but unlike Ruud, Yorkie or Ole he could certainly do a job as a modern no 10. I forgot about the penalty thing too, that makes his goal tally even more noteworthy.