Spend an hour in the company of Andy Cole and you expect to be schooled in the art of goalscoring. Rightly so. The former striker is an all-time Premier League great.
He and Alan Shearer’s joint record for the most goals scored in a 42-game season was only recently broken by Erling Haaland. He’d previously helped Newcastle into the top flight. His goals for Manchester United were pivotal in the club’s momentous treble win of 1999.
And yet Cole, 51, a direct descendant of the Windrush generation, is an authority on coal mining and the context of his incredible achievements.