They used to play for us #5 - Carlton Cole
Aston Villa signed Chelsea striker Carlton Cole on a season long loan in July 2004. David O’Leary had sold Peter Crouch just a few days earlier for just £2M - a decision which surely calculates as one of his worst as Aston Villa manager. Cole had just finished a similar loan spell at Charlton and Alan Curbishley had been keen to take him on for another year. But he arrived at Villa Park instead with a degree of controversy. Charlton Chief Executive Peter Varney revealed that the club had a categorical assurance that Cole would not be loaned to another Premiership club following his preference not to stay for another year at The Valley.
Cole began his Villa career with a debut goal in a 2-0 victory over Southampton on the opening day of the 2004-05 season. It proved to be the first of only three goals in 39 appearances for Villa and he returned to Chelsea in the summer of 2005.
I remember when Cole joined us for that season my mate Jon (a lifelong Charlton supporter) telling me that Cole had a clear attitude problem and could be prone to lazyness. The move to bring Cole in was not popular. Many thought that regardless of how well he may perform, there was no chance that he would make the move from the capital to Birmingham and neither would Villa be able to afford him anyway.
Despite some promising early home games for Villa, the supporters lost patience with him following a dispirited performance in an away game at Manchester City. The general view was that he was forming no real understanding with Juan Pablo Angel and that he was looking lazy and disinterested. Furthermore, many fans felt that the progress of the young striker Luke Moore was being held back by Cole.
West Ham finally ended Cole’s career with Chelsea in July 2006 when the (then) 22 year old signed for an undisclosed fee on a four-year contract. It has only been this season - and in particular the arrival of Gianfranco Zola as manager - that Cole has started to produce the goods for the Hammers. He has scored 11 goals this season and his improvement in December and January led England boss Fabio Cappello to include Cole in the England squad to play Spain in a friendly international in February. Carlton Cole replaced Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor after 75 minutes and missed a late chance in a 2-0 defeat.
Time will tell whether Cole can consistently deliver the goods in top flight football for either his club or on the international stage.
