Carlton Cole was not the only West Ham United player who had issues with Alan Curbishley during a somewhat tense time at Upton Park.
Former left-back Paul Konchesky could not believe his luck – or a lack thereof – when he suddenly reunited with a manager he had fallen out with at Charlton Athletic.
Marlon Harewood recalls Curbishley’s ‘old-school’ methods, and the friction between he and the playing staff following the sacking of Alan Pardew in December 2006.
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Carlton Cole, meanwhile, found himself in the exactly same boat as Konchesky. Pardew’s sacking and Curbishley’s subsequent appointment meant a rather awkward revisiting of a relationship which had soured at The Valley.
West Ham United hero Carlton Cole rejected Charlton Athletic return
Speaking opposite Adebayo Akinfenwa on his Beast Mode On podcast, Cole admits that he turned down the chance to sign for Curbishley’s Charlton permanently following a loan spell in 2003/04.
Curbishley and Chelsea wanted to include the young striker as part of the deal which saw Scott Parker move to Stamford Bridge in January of that campaign.
Something which rubbed the ‘headstrong’ Cole up the wrong way.
“I felt I didn’t understand [Curbishley initially], and he didn’t get me either,” Cole says. “Curbishley wanted me to come back [to Charlton] but I’d been messing around off the pitch. I got injured as well, so I said, ‘You know what? I need to get out of London because I just want a new challenge.’
“But [I didn’t know], the Scott Parker deal from Charlton to Chelsea, I was involved in it. They just wanted to get the Scott Parker deal over the line, Chelsea did.
“So Alan Curbishley says, ‘Well, we’ve got to throw in Carlton Cole.’ I hadn’t agreed to it!
“I was like, ‘No, I ain’t going back there. You can’t just use me as a pawn. I’m not that guy!’ These are the things that happen behind the scenes. I remember Curbishley calling me saying, ‘Are you coming back?’ and I was like, ‘No, I ain’t coming back.’
“I was just so headstrong and I didn’t want to be used as any kind of pawn in the deal. I said, ‘I’m going to come back to Chelsea.’
“Scott Parker went to Chelsea [eventually]. I remember him kicking up a fuss. I remember it in training. They fell out. So [Curbishley] had to sell him in the end.”
Cole joined Aston Villa on loan from Chelsea while Tottenham missed out
Cole missed out on a move to Tottenham Hotspur around the same time, because then-Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich refused to sell to a club he did not exactly enjoy cordial relations with. As it transpired, the former England international joined Aston Villa on loan rather than return to Charlton, before making a move to West Ham in the summer of 2006.
Mere months before a very familiar face would walk into the dressing room.
“Chelsea had taken back the option-to-buy from Charlton, about £4 million or something. This is what Curbishley told me the other day! I didn’t know about this,” adds Cole, who recently featured alongside his old boss in the regular Ironcast podcast.
“So then [Villa boss] David O’Leary called me. I went up to Aston Villa for the year instead.”
A reunion with Alan Curbishley at Upton Park didn’t start well
Can you work out the THREE missing players from our last win at Anfield? 🔴 🕊️
A clue: our striker scored in stoppage time!
During a very difficult start to life at Upton Park, Cole was occasionally booed by the West Ham fans following what he now accepts were some very ill-advised comments shortly after joining. His situation was not helped by a remarkable battle for places up top or, in fact, Curbishley’s attempts to ship him out to Championship promotion pushers Derby County before that feted ‘Great Escape’ had even clicked into gear.
“I didn’t do my due diligence! I said [to Pardew], ‘Listen, bro, you’ve got a lot of strikers here, man.’ And he goes, ‘Don’t worry, you’re going to be one of four.’ At the time, they had Teddy Sheringham, Dean Ashton, Bobby Zamora, and Marlon Harewood!” Cole says.
“So I signed and that made five strikers! I’m thinking, ‘One of these is going to go at some point in this window.’ No one went! No one went. Do you know what happened? We went and signed [Carlos] Tevez on top of that! So there’s six of us! I was like, ‘I might as well have stayed at Chelsea’.
“It got to that point where I just had to ride it out.
“Alan Pardew, I remember he was trying to get me in the team now and again, but he couldn’t do [it] enough. He got sacked midway through my first season; not even midway, just before the January transfer window of my first season.
“So now, Alan Curbishley comes in. What did I just tell you about Alan Curbishley? I didn’t go back for the second outing [at Charlton]! I’d already dissed him!
“As soon as he comes in, Alan was trying to get rid of me. He was trying to send me to Derby County in the January window because he wasn’t going to play me. I was like, ‘Man, this is just bad luck all around!'”
Considering that Cole would remain at West Ham for nearly ten more years, while scoring just shy of 70 goals in the process, it is fair to say he came through those difficult beginnings.
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