West Ham legend rejected Arsenal twice as striker opens up on ‘blase’ Gunners talks

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As if Tony Cottee was not enough of West Ham United legend, one of the greatest goalscorers in the history of the Premier League outfit now opens up on the time he rejected a move to rivals Arsenal.

This was not, by the way, the first time Arsenal had tried and failed to sign the man sitting second on the list of West Ham United’s highest all-time goalscorers.

Long before the days when elite level clubs started offering budding young footballers still of primary school age the chance to join their academies, players often had the choice of training at a number of different outfits before signing schoolboy terms.

Frank Lampard trained at Tottenham and Arsenal before opting to follow in his father’s claret and blue footsteps. Manchester United tried to snatch Joe Cole from under the nose of Harry Redknapp a couple of years before his Hammers debut.

As for Tony Cottee, fortunately enough, his boyhood adoration for all things West Ham meant that Arsenal, not to mention Crystal Palace, would miss out on a striker who would soon become one of the best of his generation.

Tony Cottee explains choosing West Ham over Arsenal and Crystal Palace

Cottee was speaking during a talk with West Ham Fan TV, regaling the supporters with tales from his youth.

“My Dad was a good amateur player. Funnily enough, he played for East Ham, I played for West Ham!,” Cottee begins. “I was under-10s, and scored 99 goals in one season, I think they knew I was a bit of a talent!

“It was a bit different those days. [Now], kids at five, six, seven years of age, professional teams are looking at them. We didn’t have that in my day. You had to wait until you were 12 [to sign a contract].

So, I got to 12. I think we played on a Saturday and won 24-1, something stupid like that, and I scored ten goals that day!

“The following day, my Dad sat me down and said, ‘we need to have a chat. I’ve had three clubs ring me up and [they] want to sign you’. Crystal Palace-  who had Terry Venables at the time, Arsenal – a great football club, and West Ham.

“I said, ‘Dad, I want to sign for West Ham’. He went, ‘well, do you want to train with the other clubs’. I said, ‘yeah, let’s do a bit of training’. I went to Palace, didn’t feel right. Arsenal, didn’t feel right. I went to West Ham, and training on the forecourt at Upton Park in the car park was just what a wanted really!,” he adds with a healthy dose of loving sarcasm.

“That’s how great our facilities were! It was my club. I wanted to play for West Ham.”

George Graham meeting pushed Cottee towards Everton

Cottee scored 118 goals in 256 games during a formidable first spell at his beloved club. But the departures of Paul Goddard to Newcastle and his strike partner Frank McAvennie to Celtic left the then-23-year-old poacher feeling that the time had come for a fresh start.

Again, Arsenal made their move. But thanks in part to a less-than promising first meeting with Gunners boss George Graham, and Everton’s willingness to pay a record £2.2 million fee, Cottee would spend the next six years rattling the net at Goodison Park.

“I just got so frustrated. Paul Goddard left, Frank McAvennie left. So I had to make a decision,” he recalls.

“I think most West Ham fans thought I was going to sign for Arsenal, I think most Arsenal fans thought I was going to sign for Arsenal, and I think most Everton fans thought it was going to sign for Arsenal, because I’m a London boy.

“I met Colin Harvey, the Everton manager. He looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Tony, I want you to score 25 goals a season’. Brilliant.

“Then I go and meet George Graham. He looked me in the eyes and went, ‘Tony, when we lose possession of the ball, I want you to go and down out by their right-back’. I thought, ‘what do I want to do that for?’ Then he said to me, ‘you could wear your club blazer with pride’.

“I thought why do I want to do that, I’m a West Ham fan!

“I think George was just very blasé. I think he felt I was going to sign for arsenal because I am a London boy. In the end, I signed for Everton. Everton and West Ham are very, very similar. Proper people, proper fans, working class club, love their football.”

Cottee did not quite meet Harvey’s target of 25, but 18 goals was a more than respectable return in his debut campaign in Everton blue. The seven-time England international would add another 81 to his tally before returning home and picking up where he left off with West Ham.