UNTITLED

During a triumphant, 20-year-career, Andrew Cole didn't do much talking. He scored a lot, he won a lot, but talking, well he left that to others. Today, he's ready to tell his story.

Devils and Angels will take us back to Cole's upbringing, to his first steps into the sometimes uncaring world of pro-football and to becoming a superstar footballer. With the iconic No.9 on his back Newcastle's Toon Army had a new hero. But after a shock, big-money move to Alex Ferguson's Manchester United Andrew Cole was propelled even further to the top of the sport's consciousness.

Devils and Angels examines the complexities of Cole's move to Manchester United and the scrutiny he was now under, and how when a striker over thinks his game, that game can fall apart.

Never easy with the fame and adulation afforded to football's new stars, Cole struggled with the limelight. Not that Cole could escape flamboyance and big personality and this book places the reader right next to the biggest names the era had to offer. Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, David Beckham, Thierry Henry and Patrick Viera at Arsenal, Alan Shearer at Blackburn and Newcastle and amongst others from abroad, the likes of Rivaldo, Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane to name a few.

But what about when the floodlights are turned off? In 2015, seven years after retiring, Cole was working in Vietnam as a Manchester United ambassador when he contracted a virus and it soon became clear he was seriously ill. His kidney function had reduced to 7% of its usual capacity. He needed a transplant.

It was his nephew who donated an organ, but for Cole, the ordeal was only just beginning. Depression and suicidal thoughts became part of his everyday life and in this book, he examines the profound effect his illness and its aftermath has had on his and his family's life.

Cole will talk with frank honesty about a range of subjects from matters of race, youth crime, mental health, and of course fame; that added commodity his talent placed upon him and which he found so hard to get to grips with.

Devils and Angels takes its reader through an extraordinary life, and a career that spanned an era that supporters of the game continue to canonise.

Now, over a decade since retirement he is ready to do his talking.