recalled cole has no regrets about hoddle 'coward' jibe
Andy Cole looks certain to play a part in England's friendly against France this week, less than three months after believing his inter-national career was over
following a public row with Glenn Hoddle.
Cole has no regrets about branding Hoddle a ''coward'' for criticising his strike-rate in public in the build-up to the game against the Czech Republic last November, and would speak out again in similar circumstances.
It came, he said, as a huge shock when Hoddle's last act as England coach was to pick him in the squad for the friendly against the world champions, and the reversal of fortunes will be completed on Wednesday night, with caretaker coach Howard Wilkinson indication Cole would be involved at least as a substitute.
The last of Cole's two
previous substitute's appearances for England came at Le Tournoi against Italy in June 1997, and the striker said. ''I had kind of given up hope of being picked, even if Alex Ferguson and the United players had been giving me stick not to and telling me I'd get another chance,'' he admitted.
''So, I've just persevered and fortunately I've now got another chance - but it was a bit of surprise as I'd been out for such a long time.''
It was still clear, as the striker joined his first
England training session at Bisham Abbey for almost two years, that a rigid conviction remains in Cole's mind that he had been right to go into print with his
criticisms of Hoddle on the morning of the Czech game.
''I just believe in freedom of speech. So when he said what he said, I felt it was right for me to say what I had to say.''
It was hardly surprising, then, that Cole was unwilling to discuss his feelings about Hoddle's sacking, but he did insist: ''I'm not bitter towards him in any way, that was his opinion and everyone's entitled to their
opinion.
''For him to have put me in the squad, obviously he's
forgotten all about it and I'm glad it's water under the bridge.''
Veteran Arsenal defender Lee Dixon was handed a
surprise call-up to the squad by Wilkinson, one month before he turns 35
The full back made the last of his 21 appearances for his country five years ago in the 7-1 defeat of San Marino in Bologna, during England's failed bid to make it to the 1994 World Cup finals.
The main reason for Dixon's call-up would seem to be the ankle injury affecting the only recognised right back, Gary Neville.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article