Given that he works closely with West Ham United’s youngsters these days, Carlton Cole will surely have plenty of advice to bestow upon the next generation of Premier League prospects.
Because, when he joined the Hammers from local rivals Chelsea twenty years ago, the seven-time England international put his foot in it right from the off.
Carlton Cole was lacking in the media training department, certainly. But West Ham United did not help the youngster, publishing some rather ill-advised quotes made by their new signing through the club’s own in-house channels.
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These days, the occasionally ‘unplayable’ Cole is a popular figure among the London Stadium faithful.
But right at the start of his Hammers career – he was only 22 years of age in the summer of 2006 – Cole faced plenty of scrutiny from a fanbase who understandably had concerns about how much he really wanted to wear the claret and blue kit.
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Carlton Cole had a very difficult start at West Ham United
Speaking opposite Adebayo Akinfenwa on his Beast Mode On podcast, Cole acknowledges that telling his new club how much he wanted to ‘go back to the top four’ was not the smartest of moves, even if this was not the way he intended such comments to come across.
“I was getting booed by my own fans,” a self-deprecating and forgiving Cole remembers. “Because when I came, I wasn’t media trained. I came from Chelsea and I said certain comments I shouldn’t have said. I didn’t say it to an outside media entity; I said it to our own media and they printed it!
“I said; ‘When I come here, I just want to do so well so I can go back up to the top four again.’
“You can’t say that! [The fans] were like, ‘What do you mean? You’re using us as a stepping stone?’ I didn’t mean it like that, but you can’t say it!”
Cole bounced back at Upton Park following a series of exits
Cole played only 17 Premier League games, scoring twice, during an underwhelming debut season at Upton Park. The enigmatic Carlos Tevez saved Alan Curbishley’s side from the drop with a final day winner away to Manchester United. It is fair to say Cole’s contributions to the ‘Great Escape’ of 2006/07 are not quite so memorable.
Yet, he would use those early struggles – plus the departures of Marlon Harewood, Bobby Zamora, Tevez and Dean Ashton – as fuel; a springboard upon which he bounced back.
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“If you’re getting booed by your own fans and getting berated by the opposition fans, [it feels like] the whole world is against you,” Cole says. “Your confidence is either going to plummet, or you can fool yourself and be a bit dumb. A bit numb to it.
“So I had to lock out everything and concentrate on myself. The only way out was working hard and showing I was worthy of giving a chance to.
“What happens, how God opens the door for you; [West Ham picked up] loads of injuries. So now I’m the main guy. I’m playing and I have to be reliable. Now, it’s time to show my worth.
“I started knuckling down, and game after game I started improving. The fans started thinking, ‘yeah, he’s doing alright now. Turning it around. He’s an idiot, but he’s our idiot!’.
“That’s when you start changing the narrative.”
Former England striker scored 68 goals for West Ham
Harewood joined Aston Villa in July 2007, while Manchester United snapped up Tevez. Curbishley forced Zamora out to Fulham another 12 months down the line. So by the time the crocked Ashton was forced into an early retirement in December 2009, Cole had climbed the pecking order like Alex Honnold up a Taiwan skyscraper.
“Marlon Harewood leaves. Bobby Zamora leaves the next season after that,” adds Cole, who would go onto score nearly 70 goals in nine years at the club. “Now, I’m the only [striker] fit. I’m now starting to get involved.
“Obviously Dean Ashton is injured, Zamora left, Marlon Harewood leaves, so there’s space for me now. Then, everyone else is injured. That’s when I started to hit them heights and started to play regular football.
“So it’s taken a season after that, even after I left Chelsea, to get going!”
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