Call Yourself A Fan?: Carlton Cole on Mark Noble’s chances of becoming West Ham boss

Carlton Cole talks about hair-raising football adventures in in Indonesia and speculates on Mark Noble’s chances of becoming West Ham manager.

The former West Ham and Chelsea striker revealed all about his stint playing for Persib Bandung in Indonesia. He lifted the lid on a world where matches often needed military intervention.

I tell you what. Remember the hooligan culture of ‘Green Street’? They’ve got that (in Indonesia); they are involved in that fully. We had to go to a game in five military tanks. I was out there with Michael Essien because it was his great idea to invite me. There was a local derby and we were playing Jakarta and I played for Persib Bandung. When I came downstairs I saw aload of tanks outside the hotel. I asked, ‘What’s that for?’ and he (Michael Essien) said, ‘You’re getting in it.’ I said, ‘What do you mean, “I’m getting in it”?’ If you go in a coach they usually put bricks through your window, so you’ve got to go in a military vehicle! It had guns on the top and you accessed it from the side. You get to the stadium and you go underneath because they’ve got massive stadiums over there.

Cole also had plenty to say about Mark Noble’s transition from the pitch to the boardroom and he questioned why Mr West Ham hasn’t made the leap into the dugout:

Listen, Mark is a captain, a leader, and he cares deeply about the club. He always made sure his teammates were in check. But he learned off some good leaders; you had Matthew Upson, you had Scott Parker who wasn’t a captain, but he led by example. I’m surprised Noble hasn’t gone into management yet. He’s upstairs at West Ham at the moment. The thing about Mark is he likes to control the environment and that’s what he’s trying to do right now, but I don’t know if he’s doing a great job of it!