Teddy Sheringham reveals what Andy Cole said to him in nightclub after years of hostility | OneFootball

Teddy Sheringham has revealed what Andy Cole said to him in a nightclub years after their playing careers had ended.

Two of the greatest strikers of the Premier League era, Sheringham and Cole enjoyed huge success together at Manchester United for four seasons in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Despite that, the pair had a fierce dislike for one another, with their animosity stemming back to an incident at the old Wembley in 1995.

Cole felt “embarrassed” by Sheringham, who is five years his senior, after coming on as a substitute for his England debut against Uruguay.

As Sheringham trudged off the pitch towards the dugout he appeared to blank the 24-year-old debutant.

Video: Sheringham blanks Cole on England debut

What did Cole say about being blanked by Sheringham?

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph in 2019, Cole reflected: "I didn't want to play the game after that. That's how embarrassed I felt.

"Snubbed on the line when you're making your debut as a young kid… I think I hit the bar in the game but I couldn't get it out of my mind.”

And in 2010, Cole wrote in a column for The Independent: "I walk on to the pitch, 60,000 or so watching. Sheringham is coming off. I expect a brief handshake, a 'Good luck, Coley', something. I am ready to shake. He snubs me. He actively snubs me, for no reason I was ever aware of then or since. He walks off. I don't even know the bloke so he can't have any issue with me. We're fellow England players, it is my debut and he snubs me.

"You know what my immediate thoughts were? 'Jesus Christ! How many people just saw Teddy Sheringham do that to me?' I was embarrassed. I was confused. And there you have it. From that moment on, I knew Sheringham was not for me.”

Tottenham in the summer of 1997, although Sir Alex Ferguson was apparently unaware of the feud.

Together they helped Man Utd win a host of major honours, including the treble (Champions League, Premier League, and FA Cup) in 1999.

Andy Cole: I never spoke to Teddy Sheringham

“We scored a lot of goals,” Cole said. “I never spoke a single word to him.

“People wonder how on earth we could function like that. Gary Pallister once said to me: 'I know you don't speak to Teddy and he doesn't speak to you, but at least you play well together.'

“We did, and I wouldn't ever cast aspersions on Sheringham's talent as a top-rate footballer for his clubs and country. I've just loathed him personally for 15 years."

Cole even said that he’d “rather sit down and have a cuppa with Neil Ruddock, who broke my leg in two places in 1996, than with Teddy Sheringham, who I’ve pretty much detested for the past 15 years”.

Pretty crazy, right?

They’re not the first pair of teammates to dislike each other and they won’t be the last, but the level of animosity that existed between Cole and Sheringham - two of the highest-profile players of the Premier League era - was on another level.

Teddy Sheringham: What Andy Cole said to me in nightclub

So when Sheringham saw Cole walking towards him in a nightclub, around a decade after their playing careers had ended, he feared the worst was about to happen.

"Probably about 10 years after we finished playing, I was in a nightclub with a couple of pals,” Sheringham told talkSPORT.

"Andy was in the nightclub and I saw him walking towards me and I thought to myself, ‘He looks a little bit stern, this looks a bit naughty’.

"I just looked over his shoulder and his wife Shirley was in the background, and I could see her looking over and looking a little bit apprehensive.

"I thought ‘Hello, this could turn a bit nasty’, I don’t know whether he’s going to try and put one on me or what. He walked over and he said, ‘Ted look, let’s let bygones be bygones and forget about what’s happened and move on’.

"He put his hand out and I was like, ‘Wow, I did not expect that Andy’. But yeah I’m happy to do that, put my hand out and shook hands. He walked away and we’ve been okay ever since.”