Nov
8
Category: 
|BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | Southend Utd | Keen Cole makes up for lost time: “Southend winger Mitchell Cole’s career reads like an Eastenders script.
A talented teenage prodigy at the age of 18, he is close to breaking into the West Ham first team.
But his professional dream turns sour - he leaves West Ham due to injury problems and is at a loss as to what to do next with his life.
Cole contemplates giving up football altogether - in fact he does just that for a year, and sits at home, where he puts on nearly a stone in weight.
But in the summer of 2004 Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole’s father - Mitchell’s girlfriend is Joe Cole’s sister Charlie - suggests he trains with Grays Athletic, then in the Conference South.
The young left winger is quickly offered a contract by Grays and helps the Essex club win promotion to the Conference.
Cole’s performances win him rave reviews and in the summer of 2005 League One club Southend come in for the left winger, just as they did with another former Grays player, prolific striker Freddy Eastwood.”
