A week or so ago at Arsenal, the former West Ham forward Carlton Cole approached a couple of newspaper journalists at half-time. 'Hello, I am Carlton,' he said, extending a hand.
On radio duty for BBC 5 Live for the first time, Cole explained he'd been nervous beforehand but that he was enjoying himself. Soon talk turned to the football and he offered an insightful view on the Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
The next day Cole was on radio duty again — this time at Manchester City's game against West Ham — and this time his world threatened to fall apart. The 38-year-old inexplicably used the word 'Holocaust' when talking about the possibility of a heavy defeat for David Moyes' team.
Carlton Cole should be given another chance after his blunder on BBC 5 Live last weekend
The former striker referred to a big defeat at the Etihad being like a 'Holocaust' for his old team
There is no excuse for what Cole said. Equally, his immediately expressed regret was genuine. When I called him a couple of days later, he admitted that he was still coming to terms with what had happened. 'People will hopefully understand how sorry I am,' he said. 'I am not sure what more I can say at the moment.'
Reaction to Cole's comments was predictable. There was not a lot of understanding or sympathy. Some said the former centre forward should never work in the media again. But one of the few pertinent observations came from another former footballer, Stan Collymore.
Writing in his Daily Mirror column, Collymore said: 'During my playing days, "Holocaust" and "Chernobyl" were used liberally in dressing rooms as words for "nightmare" or "woeful".
'Football speak is a weird mishmash of sayings, old and new, which players use as accepted language without even thinking about what words actually mean. The majority of players have used those words at some point around the training ground. Is that an excuse? No, of course not. But I hope it provides a little context.'
Collymore summed the matter up well. Football has come a long way in terms of the enlightenment and social awareness of its players. But dressing rooms remain crude places where the language used can be base.
I asked a former Premier League manager over the weekend if much has changed in that regard. 'Basically, no,' he replied. So it seems as though the education of our players must continue and must be accelerated. This language must change.
Cole working in radio again feels right, he seems like a man who can learn from his errors
Equally, taking footballers straight from such environments into TV and radio gantries and studios
