There's no Cole left in the fire

Today we saw the retirement of one of the great Premeir League players in history, Andy Cole. Cole played for a number of clubs in and out of the Premiership, most famously for Manchester United where he won five league titles two FA cups and a Champions League trophy in a treble winning 1999.

Cole started his career at Arsenal in which he played just one game in three years and soon moved onto Bristol City where he had a very successful spell scoring 20 goals in 41 games. However it was clear that his talent deserved better, and he soon moved to Division One high fliers Newcastle who were keen on promotion to the new Premier League. They were promoted and in his season as a Premiership player he scored 34 goals in 40 games to won Young player of the year at the age of 22 in the same season as Newcastle qualified for the UEFA Cup.

After another season on Tynside Cole was sold to Manchester United for 7 million to bolster their attacking options. Cole struggled at first at Old Trafford and became a laughing stock before winning the double in 1996 and then the treble in 1999 where he became telepathic with Dwight Yorke. A few more seasons went along before he slipped down the pecking order behind Ruud Van Nistelrooy and moved to Blackburn under Graeme Souness.

He had a good time at the Lancashire club scoring 13 goals in his first season and picked up the League Cup scoring the winning goal in the final against Tottenham. He moved onto Fulham a few years later however to join his only London based club of his career, he became the clubs top scorer and helped send down Norwich City on the final day of the 2004/05 season. Spells at Manchester City, Portsmouth and Sunderland were very unsuccessful before he dropped down to the Championship with Burnley.

He showed he could still cut it at any level as he scored 6 goals in 13 games and Nottingham Forest came in for him to boost their attack prowess. However at Forest he was short of games and was released in October.

Cole won just 15 England caps as a player, even though he is second in the all time list of Premier-League goalscorers with 187.

His lack of caps is certainly one for scrutiny considering he was one of the best marksman in the League. He could be seen as a bit like Robbie Fowler in that he could perform for club but not for country, although unlike Fowler he was never given the chance to shine. Just one goal came from those games and he never went to a major championships as a result, the only thing missing from his CV

For a player in Cole's position it's amazing he's been playing for as long as he has, and in terms of quality he's served it up every time he's shown up for any of his twelve clubs, he will be missed.