Andy Cole vs Teddy Sheringham: Why did the pair never speak?

Both Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham played together for four seasons at Manchester United, winning three Premier League titles, an FA Cup and that famous Champions League in 1999, but they weren’t friends by any stretch.

In fact, the pair didn’t even talk to one  another in a bizarre feud which saw them bag goals for fun whilst not uttering a single word, something that still remains today, with neither of them looking like being the bigger man and settling their differences.

But the feud actually dates to before Sheringham signing for The Red Devils, with the altercation that led to the wall of silence taking place at Wembley.

What happened between Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham

Cole was coming on for his Three Lions debut in March 1995, replacing Sheringham on the pitch, but what happened at the start of one of his proudest moments as a professional footballer left him ‘embarrassed’.

He went to shake hands with Sheringham, a customary action in most substitutions, but Sheringham ignored him, leaving him red faced and hanging, something Cole never forgave him for.

The former striker, when talking about his feud with Sheringham claimed: “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.”

View: The moment Andy Cole’s feud with Teddy Sheringham started

Cole also claimed: “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.”

When Cole found out Sheringham was signing for United, the hatchet remained out in the open, unburied, with the wall of silence continuing.

Continuing, Cole admitted: “We never spoke, unless it was going to be another argument between us… never spoke. We didn’t exchange a single word while we were there.

Yorke formed a deadly partnership with Andy Cole at Man Utd.

“We scored a lot of goals. 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.”

It feels bizarre that such a good strike partnership had such a hate filled personal relationship.

With Cole admitting he’d rather have a cuppa with Neil Ruddock, adding: “I would 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.”

Best of friends or best of enemies? It’s irrelevant to United fans as the pair were able to put their differences aside and lead the team to a bagful of major trophies in their time together.

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