It’s fair to say Carlton Cole and Julien Faubert, the former West Ham United duo, do not exactly share the same opinions of what it means to be a great teammate.
Cole and Faubert played alongside each other at Upton Park from 2007 to 2012.
Together, they experienced a top-half Premier League finish, a crushing relegation, and the delirious highs of a play-off triumph at Wembley.
And while Carlton Cole’s time in East London coincided with that of Javier Mascherano, Carlos Tevez, Freddie Ljungberg, Demba Ba and Scott Parker, one player stands out above all others for the long-serving former West Ham United frontman.
In conversation with Wayne Bridge and namesake Joe back in June, Cole waxed lyrical about David di Michele, the mercurial Italian who burned brief but bright a Hammers jersey.
But if Julien Faubert was to pick a hypothetical West Ham dream team, the first name on his sheet would instead be a former fan favourite who put substance above style.
Julien Faubert shares his feelings on David di Michele at West Ham United
David di Michele scored only four Premier League goals during a loan spell in London during the 2008/09 season.
West Ham have a thing for mavericks, though. Cole could not help but be reminded of another enigmatic Italian in Paolo di Canio when watching Di Michele nonchalantly flick the ball over the head of a Newcastle defender before rifling home on his Hammers debut.
But Faubert, a self-professed ‘fighter’, always preferred the sergeant-like spirit and the uncompromising ferocity of Scott Parker, or the more physically-imposing presence of Dean Ashton.
“I liked the man! I think [Di Michele] was a good player, an artistic player. But he’s not my mentality of player,” Faubert smiles, speaking on the latest edition of Ironcast. “I prefer to play with Scotty because we are players who are tough, OK, we like to play but when we have to go, we go.
“[Di Michele] was a more elegant player. But, to be honest, I preferred Deano to him!”
In truth, Faubert is remembered by neutrals more for the time he spent away from Upton Park.
After then-Liverpool winger Jermaine Pennant sensationally snubbed Real Madrid, and after Los Blancos lost out to Manchester United for Antonio Valencia, the versatile Faubert made the most unexpected of loan moves to the Santiago Bernabeu in 2009.
The former France international cannot help but wonder what West Ham could have achieved that previous campaign, however, when Gianfranco Zola led them to a tenth-place finish despite losing so many key players to injury.
“I felt at this time [we had] a very, very powerful team,” Faubert said, thinking back to a time in which the aforementioned Ashton was forced to hang up his boots at the age of just 26.
“Even if we went for an away game, we had the character to push the team. I felt really confident but the thing is, I was injured and Deano was injured. So many injuries, and we weren’t together at the same time.”
Carlton Cole likened Di Michele to Hammers legend Paolo di Canio
As for Di Michele, the now-49-year-old would return to his native Italy with Lecce before calling time on his own career in 2016. He was recently appointed the head coach of Serie D outfit Ugento.
“I’ve got a good one. And it’s one that people don’t even [expect me to mention],” Cole told the Dressing Room podcast a couple of months ago. “A guy called Di Michele.
“But then he gets on the pitch and sometimes he could be Zola-esque. [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.”
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