Carlton Cole was a bizarre inclusion on the Celtic team sheet for The Masters Cup competition at Braehead. The revamped competition will see ex-players take to the side at Braehead Arena in front of supporters and whilst the Celtic team is composed of familiar faces, one name sticks out as being a bit strange… West Ham Legend Cole.
Rab Douglas is in goals. In defence, Mark Wilson and Kelvin Wilson combine. A midfield trio of Joe Ledley, Stan Petrov and Kris Commons, who are joined by Cole as well as Simon Donnelly up front.
The Englishman is a cult hero at West Ham Utd and briefly spent six months under Ronny Deila back in the 2015/16 season.
Along with his anthem to the tune of Gold by Spandau Ballet, Celtic fans were hoping that they would see the form that saw him score 51 goals in the Premier League. Instead, Cole was at the end of his career and struggled for game time as Leigh Griffiths enjoyed a sensational goalscoring season.
Cole made his debut in the Highlands, replacing Tom Rogic after 61 minutes. The veteran striker looked to have found the net after bundling the ball into the back of the net. He recently took to Twitter to call this goal ‘one of the best’ he had scored.
The goal actually went down as an own-goal and Cole would have to wait until a Scottish Cup tie against Stranraer to open his account in the Hoops. It was a surprising signing for Celtic but the free agent was seen as a ‘target man’ that would allow Deila to have two strikers in attack. Unfortunately, a knee injury cut his spell short and as a result, he was released when Brendan Rodgers took charge in the summer of 2016. Cole played for two further clubs before finally retiring in 2018.
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