Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham were team-mates for four years at Manchester United (Picture: Getty)
Manchester United great Andy Cole has revealed he once came close to punching Teddy Sheringham in a fit of rage, before Roy Keane got in the middle and acted as a ‘peacemaker’.
Cole’s long-running feud with Sheringham is well documented and dates back to March 1995, when the legendary striker made his senior England debut in a international friendly with Uruguay.
With the scoreline goalless and England searching for a winner, Terry Venables decided to send Cole on in place of Sheringham and the latter made his feelings known as he made his way off the field, walking straight past the debutant without so much as a word or glance.
Two years later, Sheringham would go on to join Cole at Old Trafford after United reached a £3.5million deal with Tottenham for the forward, who Sir Alex Ferguson had identified as the man to fill the void left by Eric Cantona.
And while Cole and Sheringham would go on form part of United’s treble-winning side of 1998/99, lifting a total six trophies together, the pair never truly buried the hatchet.
‘It started when I made my England debut and, for whatever reason, he snubbed me, he didn’t shake my hand on my debut,’ Cole told The Overlap.
‘I was mortified, I was disappointed. As far as I’m concerned, you’re [Teddy] a senior pro. I remember I’ve always watched England playing and when someone’s making their debut, whoever comes off makes a massive beeline for that individual to say: “Hey, I wish you all the best!”.
‘And I thought, “Right…”, cheesed off naturally so I just got my head down. When he joined Manchester United, I was like, “Alright, get on with it”.
‘I remember the first day of pre-season the boys couldn’t stop laughing at me because they knew. Everyone knows that.
‘And then I’ve come in, pre-season, playing the game and you know when someone’s trying to coach you into positions and I’m like: “I’ve been at Man United a minute now and I actually know what I’m doing”.
‘That happened and I let him know not to try and coach me into positions.’
Cole scored 121 goals in 275 games for the Red Devils (Picture: Getty)
Cole described how Roy Keane once had to intervene after Sheringham blamed him for United dropping points against Bolton, with Bob Taylor scoring a late equaliser at Old Trafford.
‘The final straw for me was against Bolton, we ended up drawing 1-1 at Old Trafford. They scored a late goal and he said to me, “That’s your fault”, and I said to myself, “Okay, let’s get to full-time”,’ he added.
‘I’m usually one of the last off the pitch. That day I was one of the first off the pitch.
Cole and Sheringham were instrumental as United won the treble in 1999 (Picture: Getty)
‘So I’ve ran down the tunnel and I’ve waited for him to come in and we’ve had a little bit of a set-to and I’ve just about cocked my arm back.
‘And then the peacemaker [Roy Keane] came in for about 30 seconds and then turned it on its head.
‘You tried to break it up and then you got involved yourself.’
Keane, a regular on The Overlap, said he had no problem with the feud given he felt it never ‘interfered’ with United’s objectives as a team.
‘Do you what’s really important about all this stuff? I go back to Coley and all the hang-ups with Teddy and whatever. Again, we always say there’s two sides to every story,’ he responded.
‘But the key for all this stuff: it never interfered, I don’t think so. People might go, “That’s not good for the team”, but it never interfered with our targets as a team and that’s trying to win the following weekend or the next game.
‘People have to remember that. That’s all part of it.’
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