He had a profound effect while he was a student at St. James’ Park.
Newcastle United has been fortunate to play in Europe for the last two seasons after finishing fourth in the Premier League the previous year, which guaranteed the team’s automatic qualifying for the Champions League.
Before last season’s success, the Magpies had gone 20 years without Champions League football at St James’ Park, with a whole generation missing out on the club’s glory days.
Since the club’s last European adventure, they have dropped into the Championship on multiple occasions, led by the likes of Steve Bruce in what was a dark period under former owner Mike Ashley.
Older Magpies fans may recall the influence of stars like Les Ferdinand and Alan Shearer on Tyneside during a season when the team almost missed out on winning the league.
However, the club also employed another fantastic striker, who enjoyed a successful run in front of goal during his stint at the club throughout the 1990s.
Andy Cole’s stats at Newcastle United
After forking out a then club-record fee for his signature in 1993, striker Andy Cole was brought into the club to help the Magpies get out of the old first division and secure promotion to the Premier League.
No one would have envisaged the immediate impact he would have at St James’ Park, scoring 12 goals in as many games towards the tail end of the 1992/93 campaign – a run of form that included two hat-tricks.
But that would only be the beginning of a fantastic scoring run for the forward on Tyneside; the previous season, the forward from Nottingham scored 34 goals and provided 13 assists in just 40 Premier League games, or an average of 1.2 goal contributions per game.
Cole’s staggering record would propel the Magpies to a third-placed finish that year, qualifying for the UEFA Cup just one season after securing promotion from the second tier.
Whilst he slowed down his goalscoring form during the 1994/95, he would still post a tally of 15 goals in his first 26 matches – taking his goals scored to 64 in just 86 matches, an obscene record.
| Cole’s league stats at Newcastle United | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Games | Goals | Assists |
| 1992/93 | 12 | 12 | 4 |
| 1993/94 | 40 | 34 | 13 |
| 1994/95 | 18 | 9 | 3 |
| Total | 70 | 55 | 20 |
| Stats via Transfermarkt | |||
However, he would fail to add to his Newcastle tally after he completed a shock £7m move to rivals Manchester United in February 1995 – an English record transfer that would cause outrage amongst the Magpies fanbase.
Everyone knows goalscorers don’t come cheap and, whilst it was a record transfer then, how much would he be worth in a modern transfer market? We have the answer.
How much Andy Cole would be worth in 2024
In 1993, when Newcastle signed Cole from Bristol City, it was an expensive one that broke their own record, but it was one deal that proved to be a successful investment.
Whilst his departure set the British transfer record over 30 years ago, if the club had sold him in 2024, that transfer would have been roughly worth an extraordinary £122m, according to a conversion tool from The Totally Money Transfer Index.
That would have been a deal bigger than the current British records of the £115 million Chelsea paid Brighton in the summer of last year to sign midfield player Moises Caicedo and the £105 million Arsenal paid to sign Declan Rice from West Ham United.
Whilst Newcastle selling Cole at the time was seen as an awful move by the club, the fee raised allowed the Magpies to invest the money in Shearer, with the Newcastle-born striker enjoying a successful stint at his boyhood club which saw him become the Premier League’s all-time leading scorer and a English icon.
