A man who spent only one season on loan at West Ham United is hardly the first who comes to mind when discussing Premier League icons worthy of sitting alongside Gianfranco Zola and Paolo di Canio.
Especially when those 30 appearances in England’s top flight yielded only four goals, four assists, and resulted in West Ham United deciding against turning his temporary contract into a permanent arrangement.
Ironically enough, it was under Zola himself that the Hammers opted to send David di Michele back home to Italy and parent club Torino.
Yet, Carlton Cole still harbours extremely fond memories of a mercurial playmaker who burned bright but brief in a claret and blue shirt. A footballer so unselfish, so occasionally devastating, that he altered Cole’s own understanding of the beautiful game itself.
Carlton Cole loved playing alongside David di Michele at West Ham United
In truth, David di Michele initially introduced the West Ham supporters to a standard he could not maintain. Perhaps Zola didn’t help matters when the then-Hammers boss mentioned the diminutive number ten in the same breath as his fellow Italian Di Canio only a few weeks into his English football career.
But the early signs certainly looked good.
On his Upton Park debut in September 2008, Di Michele glided effortlessly beyond Steven Taylor before opening his Premier League account with a deflected effort in a 3-1 victory over Newcastle United. A second, even more eye-catching finish, would arrive just prior to half-time.
Taylor had a habit of making himself look a little bit silly, particularly when committing rather brazen handballs on the goal line. But even the Newcastle stalwart must have wanted the ground to swallow him up as Di Michele clipped the ball over his head and doubled the Hammers’ lead.
“I’ve got a good one. And it’s one that people don’t even [expect me to mention],” Cole said opposition Wayne Bridge and namesake Joe Cole when discussing the very best of his former West Ham teammates. “A guy called Di Michele.
“What a player he was! His movement… He was, like, quite small. He didn’t look like a footballer. If you looked at him you’d think, ‘is he an athlete?’
“But then he gets on the pitch and sometimes he could be Zola-esque,” Cole explains, Di Michele reminiscent of the so-called ‘Magic Box’ whose never-ending supply of tricks secured him an eternal place in the pantheon of Chelsea greats.
“[Di Michele had] these little touches. He was the only player who came up to me – because I was the main striker at the time – and said, ‘Coley, I am just going to look for you. I want you to score’.
“And I was like ‘Wow!’ because usually it’s a competition isn’t it, to get more goals [than your teammates]?
“[Di Michele said] ‘If you’re in a better position, I’m passing to you and I want you to score. If you have an opportunity, you shoot and we will win the game’. I’m like, ‘That is actually what you are supposed to say!’
“I saw him and I looked at the game a little bit differently. It was weird, just to have that. He was so good as well, [reminiscent of] Di Canio, another Italian.
“They just read the game different.”
Carlton Cole now wants West Ham to sign Jack Grealish
Formerly of Salernitana, Udinese and Palermo, Di Michele would find the net only twice more after that dazzling introduction against Newcastle United.
Yet, while that one and only season at Upton Park would eventually be undone by a loss of form and a clear absence of consistency, David di Michele is the sort of footballer for whom the term ‘cult hero’ was always intended.
Flash forward 15 years, Cole is hoping to see the London Stadium become home to another throwback footballer who brings a balletic element to an often brutal game.
With Manchester City certain to let him go, Cole feels that West Ham should jump at the chance to rescue Jack Grealish from his Pep-imposed prison.
“He’s got to go and play, man! He’s not in the Club World Cup squad, so that’s a big sign. It’s been told to him [that he has no future at Man City]. It’s been done,” Cole tells talkSPORT.
“Spain? Italy? We’ve seen players go to Italy and thrive. You look at someone like Napoli. [But] I just think he’s a bit of a homeboy.
“Come to West Ham, mate! Yeah, we’ll have him.”
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