61. Andy Cole

Signed from: Newcastle United (£6,000,000 plus Keith Gillespie)
Debut: 1-0 win vs Blackburn Rovers, January 22nd 1995
League Record: 161 games (+34 as sub), 93 goals
Sold to: Blackburn Rovers (£8,000,000), December 2001

Ah, the days when a huge signing could appear out of nowhere and shock you. The news that Andy Cole was on his way to United was exciting to a youthful United – at the time, he was the reigning Young Player of the Year as well as the previous season’s Premiership top scorer. The prospect of him lining up with Eric Cantona seemed to promise goals galore. It didn’t quite work out that way.

Nottingham lad Cole, son of a miner, started out with Arsenal, then managed by George Graham. The dour Scot clashed with the youngster, and after only a single showing from the bench, he was on the way to Bristol City via a loan spell at Fulham. His first full season as a first teamer (92/93) saw him in good form in the second tier, and he attracted the attention of Kevin Keegan, then revitalising Newcastle United and charging to a return to the top flight. February 1993 saw £1.75 million change hands, and he instantly won hero status with 12 goals in 12 games.

Keegan then made an inspired move by bringing Peter Beardsley back to the North East. Having started out in my native Cumbria with Carlisle United, Peter had caught the eye of the legendary Jimmy Murphy whilst playing in Canada for Vancouver Whitecaps. Murphy had always had a keen eye for talent (he had recommended Steve Coppell) and we signed him for £250,000 in 1982. Then manager Ron Atkinson failed to give the striker much of a chance – half a game against Bournemouth in the League up – and let him go at the end of the season. While Beardsley developed into one of the best forwards in the country, we spent years attempting to find a decent forward line: the likes of Garth Crooks, Alan Brazil, Terry Gibson and Peter Davenport all failing to make the grade. It was, quite simply, Atkinson’s worst mistake as manager for us.

By 1993, perhaps Everton saw Beardsley as past his best – he was 32 at the time – but he and Cole scored 55 league goals over the season, as Newcastle won many fans with their attacking football. Andy got 34 of those, and though he was in slightly slower form the next season (nine goals in 18), Alex Ferguson was still convinced he was the man to replace the aging Mark Hughes in leading the front line.

Andy was never a complete crowd favourite – he had many detractors, including my own dad, who never rated him. Conversely, my mother adopted him as her favourite player, perhaps because he had learned his trade alongside her former favourite Beardsley.

A lot of his problems came on the last league game of the 1994/95 season, away at West Ham. Andy had had his moments early on – five goals in a game against Ipswich was the best one-off haul for a United player since George Best put six past Northampton in 1970, and he scored two vital goals in a 3-2 win over Coventry that kept us in the title race. At West Ham, though, he saw chances saved and hit a post as we only drew 1-1, when a win would have made us champions.

Cole, unfairly, took a lot of the blame. He struggled to reach his best form over the next two seasons – his partnership with Eric never really took off, and he wasn’t helped by a broken leg in the Autumn of 1996. Fergie seemed to be losing patience, as he signed three new strikers from 1996-98, one of whom Cole had already fallen out with over a perceived slight whilst on England duty.

The last of those three, however, brought Cole back to the forefront. Finally connecting with a strike partner, period from 1999-2000 saw him play the best football of his career. No long a pure goalscorer, his all round play had improved to an impressive degree. He scored the goal that sealed the 1999 Championship, as well as the winner at Juventus that saw us seal our place in the European Cup final.

By 2001, however, injuries had begun to take their toll - he played just 19 league games in 2000-01 season - and Fergie spent big on a new striker and adjusted the system so that we played with just the one man up top. With his first team regular status no longer assured, and still hopeful (incorrectly, as it turned out) of getting in the place in the England squad for the 2002 World Cup, he left for Blackburn. He had some success, completing his set of domestic medals by scoring the winning goal in that year season’s League Cup final.

Season-long spells at Fulham and Manchester City followed, making a decent scoring return at both, before his career wound down, ending with an unsuccessful stint back in his hometown with Nottingham Forest. Currently, he works as a television pundit and comes across far more articulacy than he did in his younger days.