"I had a call from Pat Rice, and he said, 'Derby are interested. Would you go there?' And I said, 'Are Arsenal prepared to sell me'? He said, 'Right, I’ll come back to you' … and 30 years later and I’ve never heard a word from Pat Rice again!
"When the Bristol City move did come up, I thought ‘why not?’. "I wanted to play games. I believed I was good enough to play first-team football."
Andy Cole's path to becoming one of the Premier League's and Manchester United's greatest ever strikers began with the cold shoulder treatment at Highbury where, after a promising youth career, he was shipped off to Bristol City with barely a goodbye.
As the five-time league winner admits, his senior teammates at the time Tony Adams, Steve Bould and Lee Dixon said the Gunners were mad to sanction his £500,000 sale to the Robins but for Cole it provided a springboard to success and a memorable time in his storied career.
After initially joining on a two-month loan deal, scoring eight goals in 12 games to help save the Robins from relegation, the then 21-year-old Cole became a full-time Bristol City player in the summer of 1992 under Dennis Smith, dropping down from the top-flight and leaving London to travel down the M4.
But, in conversation with Dubai-based broadcaster Chris McHardy, Cole remembers the 11 months he spent at Ashton Gate as some of the most cherished memories in football, as he quickly established himself as one of the deadliest marksmen outside of the newly created Premier League.
"It was in Division 2. But for me, it was never ‘why should I be going to Division 2?!’. It was ‘I’m going to Division 2 because I know I’m good enough and if I do well anything is possible. I wanted to play league games. So making that move was a no-brainer.
"In that summer, I made the decision - me and my brother to be fair. My brother played the role of agent on the day. It’s crazy. We drove down to Bristol. Sat down with Dennis Smith for a chat, and because I had already been on loan, there wasn’t too much to discuss. Wages, in those days it was a minor thing. And I just said ‘yeah', as I wanted to play football.
"With Arsenal, it was a double-edged sword. They sold me for 500k, but also had a sell-on clause. So in the back of their minds, they thought ‘he’s not going to make it here, but it’s possible he goes on to become a success elsewhere’.
"So 500k was a helluva lot of money back then for a kid who was unknown. So for Dennis to blow his whole budget on me was testament on him because he had to believe I was good enough."
Cole scored 17 goals in 37 games during the 1992/93 season, and endeared himself to the Ashton Gate faithful, quite simply because he was a very special player, clearly destined for the very apex of the game.
An outstanding finisher, with quick acceleration and fine first touch, his impact that campaign remains revered among Robins fans who had the privilege to watch it. So much so, in a debate as to who the club's best striker is of the last 30 years, he'd be in a two-way battle with the great Bob Taylor.
Unfortunately, unlike "Super Bob", he only sampled two-thirds of a season in a red shirt before ambitious Newcastle plucked him away for £1.75m - earning City a profit and then taking Cole onto even greater things as he was promoted with the Magpies.
"I loved it. Absolutely loved it," he added, of his time in Bristol. "When the Newcastle deal came about I thought it was a bit quick to be honest with you as I was really enjoying my time there.
"It was just over an hour from London, where I spent most of my time. For me, personally, it was the best of both worlds. I could play my football, get my head down. I wasn’t perceived a big name or anything like that. And it was a really nice city, so I enjoyed myself."
For Arsenal, although Ian Wright's iconic performances helped paper over their mistake of letting such an outstanding talent leave when he had barely been given a proper assessment at Highbury, Cole understandably feels a certain sense of retribution having been overlooked by manager George Graham and assistant Pat Rice.
"All the time. I think I spent the majority of my career being fuelled by what people said about me," he added. "I can’t do this, I can’t do that.
"For me personally, I was always that individual who’d do it, and then once I’d done it, I’d walk away and laugh at the individual and turn around and say ‘look ‘i’ve done it. There’s nothing you can say to me now’.
"So yeah, that really did fuel me (Rice’s snub). I think even more so, when you leave and you retire, you’ve grown up, you’ve been more mature.
"A few months ago I went into Arsenal and ‘Bouldy’ (Steve Bould) mentioned to me that him, Tony Adams and Lee Dixon had said to George Graham back, they said ‘You’re mad. Why are you selling him? He’s going to be a star’.
"So Arsenal really did fuel when I left as I always believed I could play at a certain level. Did I believe I’d go onto achieve what I have? Definitely not."
You can see more from what Andy Cole had to say in an extensive and candid interview with Chris McHardy in which he sets the record straight about his Newcastle exit, recalls his "summer from hell" after his worst game in a Manchester United shirt and also pulls no punches on the lack of opportunities for black managers.
