The 2005/06 season was another glorious one for Chelsea as they won their second Premier League title succession. Not every member of Jose Mourinho's squad got their hands on a medal, however.
Carlton Cole made nine league appearances that term, in what proved to be his final campaign with the Blues. The striker doesn't look back on that title-wining campaign overly fondly, though.
Speaking exclusively to FourFourTwo, Cole took aim at Mourinho for his lack of a winner's medal in that successful season for Chelsea. In fact, he described it as "the lowest point" of his time at Stamford Bridge.
Asked about the highest highs and lowest lows of his career, Cole told FFT: "My senior debut for Chelsea in our 3-0 win against Everton in 2002 was my highlight.
I came on for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and the applause I got from the home fans made me feel a sense of achievement and elation, because I knew how much work I’d put in to get to that stage.
"To have the chance to play for the first team in front of 40,000 fans with everyone knowing my name and wanting me to do well was a massive high point in my career – one I’ll never forget. The lowest point was on the last day of the 2005/06 campaign.
"We won the league under Jose Mourinho, but I didn’t play for the last three matches of the season because he didn’t want me to get a Premier League winners’ medal. All I needed was to play in two games, but Jose wouldn’t let me do that. He felt that I wasn’t deserving of a medal, so in the end I never got one."
Cole left Chelsea for West Ham that summer, and he would go on to enjoy the best years of his career in East London. In 2011/12, he helped the Hammers return to the top flight by winning the Championship play-offs.
Capped seven times by England between 2009 and 2010, Cole wound down his career with spells at Celtic, US outfit Sacramento Republic and – in a particularly unusual move – Persib Bandung of Indonesia. He hung up his boots in 2017 and later returned to West Ham as an academy coach.
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