Andrew Cole is 40 this year. He looks about 30. “Just trying to work hard, keep the weight off.” In Ireland to promote Heineken's hook up with the Champions League he's fit and trim and ready to go. The only thing is that the jobs for former footballers without coaching badges are few and far between. The jobs for black former footballers without coaching badges are almost nonexistent.
He talks about the merry-go-round of jobs in football, but he's not on that carousel. “It’s tough, people say you need these qualifications and I can’t get my head around that – football is knowledge, football is knowledge. I don’t need a piece of paper to say to you I can turn around and coach kids”.
The real problem isn’t that Andrew Cole doesn’t have coaching badges though.
If someone wants to give you a job, they’ll give you a job, regardless if you’ve got all the qualifications. You can have all the qualifications in the world, does that mean you’ll be a great coach? It’s what people belive of you, ultimately that’s what it is.
Balls: But you need an opportunity to prove to a chairman that you’re the right man for the job. Where would that start, at a smaller club?
AC: Who knows, it’s been well documented that black players who’ve retired to try to get into management there’s a big stumbling block, a big, big stumbling block.
Balls: How do you feel about that? In Ireland we’ve had Chris Hughton – who we thought was an amazing coach, coached with Ireland and an amazing success story at Newcastle but then suddenly he wasn’t high profile enough. Is it not frustrating as someone who wants to get into the game?
AC: It’s very frustrating; no matter how you look at it and whatever people say there’s still a glass ceiling when it comes to black players in management. Chris Hughton did a fantastic job at Newcastle and all of a sudden he’s not high profile enough but Alan Pardew is then? So it’s from one thing to another, you gotta come out and say what it is. Don’t beat around the bush and say he’s not high profile enough – well he was high profile enough when he got you promoted to the Premiership, done a fantastic job in the Premiership, everyone’s healthy, everyone’s happy and then he gets sacked for not being high-profile enough if that was the case when you appointed him to get you back into the Premiership it’s the same thing, wasn’t it? It’s all cloak and daggers. If someone wants you to have a job and wants you to do well in the job you’ll do well in the job.
Balls: In American Football they have the Rooney Rule where whenever a headcoaching job comes up a number of the candidates interviewed for the post must be from an ethnic minority. What do you think of that?
AC: Rightly so. I think it’s a great idea. We all follow football – if you look at the managerial scale in England it’s a merry go round, one gets sacked another gets the job, he gets sacked and another job comes up and he comes in. If you look at that, it’s one big cycle.
Balls: And no sign that one guy is going to be better than the next
AC: None whatsoever. I don’t know Gary Megson, but he got sacked and all these young managers want to try and get an opportunity in the game or whatever but Gary Megson gets another job at Sheffield Wednesday. Young managers looking at that and saying to themselves well if we want to get into the game how are we going to if Chairmen won’t open their minds and are going to keep giving the same individuals jobs?
Balls: And you’re still interested in getting involved in this game even though this is what happens
AC: You have to in some respect, you gotta keep your options open but if it doesn’t happen for me I’m not going to lose sleep over it....Do I believe I can help someone as a centre-forward score goals, hell yeah. That’s what someone did to me when I was younger. If people don’t believe I’m good enough to do that I’ll get on with that too.
Cole was in Dublin for Heineken’s ‘Raise Your Game’ promotion. He’s calling on football fans to ‘Raise Your Game’ on Champions League nights to win a VIP trip to the final at Wembley Stadium as well as 100 daily prizes to create the ultimate football night in by entering the on pack promotion.
Further details are on www.heineken.ie or on all Heineken UCL promotional packs.
