Cole agent forced Pompey move

[jontydog]

Just got this from mcfc.co.uk

Cole’s agent demanded striker’s switch to Pompey – Pearce 05/09/2006 23:30



Manchester City Manager Stuart Pearce has revealed that the Club were forced to sell Andy Cole to Portsmouth in a shock pre-deadline day move.

The Blues boss stressed that the Club were desperate to keep the striker, but the player’s agent suggested if City blocked the move, Cole might have retired from football.

Pearce said of the transfer: “I was surprised, maybe disappointed as well. The first conversation I had with Andy and his agent was probably four or five days before the window shut.

“My initial reaction was ‘no definitely not, you’re not going anywhere’, but one or two things developed and we tried to find some form of middle ground.”

The 34-year-old forward decided to move down to the south coast only a year after moving back to the northwest to join his family.

Pearce added: “He had an extremely good offer from Portsmouth, an offer of two years as well from them, and I tried to offer him not just this year but next year as long as he fulfilled x-amount of appearances.

“We hit a bit of a stalemate and at the end of the day we had to agree a fee with Portsmouth and he had to go.”

City could have been well within their rights to force Cole to honour his contract and keep him at SportCity until the end of the season.

Of that idea, the Manager said: “Well that’s always an option to do that but there were suggestions that the player might retire if I didn’t let him go. After that was suggested to me what choice did I have?

“In the terms of negotiations it was mentioned that this deal [from Portsmouth] was too good to turn down and it might be a case of the player retiring if we did not agree to the transfer.

“That came from the agent. It was a bit disappointing and as soon as you hear that then you just move on and say ‘right ok’. We decided, myself, the Chairman and the Chief Executive to take the money on the player and move on.

“He wanted to go and play somewhere else, I tried my best to offer the player another contract that wouldn’t just leave the club wide open to be paying a player. We had to bear in mind that the player has not played for seven months.

“I offered the contract to Andy last December and was good to my word. That contract didn’t get signed until this summer for whatever reason.

“That’s the way it goes. We got a fee for the player, the player’s moved on, wish him well and we’ve got to move on from that.



I thought he was a good buy but obviously there is no loyalty left anymore in football

[Jimdefruit]

When has Andy Cole ever been loyal?

If he doesn't behave himself, he will be booed off the pitch at Pompey and will spend a lot of time on the bench, or 'left back' in the dressing room.

It took him a few years to learn that as a striker, you dont just wait in the goal mouth waiting for a ball perfectly passed to your feet. After several clubs he learned to move around a bit. Now after a few years he has lost some speed and I dont think he will be quite what Pompey want.

The move was more likely based on what the agent could get in commission.

[BGonaSTICK]

I think the threat of retirement is nearly as bad as the disgracefull Gallas threat of scoring an own goal or deliberately getting sent off.

You wait till that ****er comes back to the bridge. He'll be lucky to get out again in one piece!