Simon who? Simon Cox, our new possible Ireland international star, that’s who. Here are five things you may not know about Il Trap’s latest snare.
1. He was a Goal of the Season contender.
Okay, it was for Swindon Town, and yes, it was in front of many rows of empty seats at the County Ground, but this goal still stands out as something to savour. We’ll let YouTube do it justice:
2. He changed hands for a seven-figure sum.
These days even the biggest clubs, never mind lower division teams, routinely go down the route of cut-price deals and season-long loans. Nevertheless, of the English transfers with confirmed fees in the summer of 2009, only around a dozen (including Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo) were for bigger fees than the £1.5m which took Cox from Swindon to West Brom.
3. He has started just six Premier League games.
Despite that relatively lofty fee, he struggled to impress Baggies boss Roberto Di Matteo and has been a primary beneficiary of Roy Hodgson’s arrival at the Hawthorns. His first top flight start came against Blackpool in November, when he was sacrificed – not in that sense – after 15 minutes following a red card for teammate Pablo Ibanez.
4. He could be a new contender for the title John O’Shea and Kevin Kilbane have shared between them for a decade: Mr Versatile.
“To be honest my best position is open for debate. I started as a striker but when I played in the reserves it was as a midfielder. I’ve asked the gaffer and he says he can’t put his finger on what is my best position.
“I’ve played in various positions, but that’s not a bad thing. I would prefer to play up front, but I just want to play football so I don’t mind.”
To be fair to the lad, when he said those words he was 19 and had just signed his first professional contract at Reading, so he’s clearly come on a bit since then. And it seems that he’s now definitely a striker. We think.
5. He won’t be the first Simon Cox to pull on an Ireland shirt.
No, that honour went to his namesake, a Clapham-born goalkeeper who won caps between U16 and U20 level in the early part of the last decade. Unfortunately for Simon Cox (gloves), his Wikipedia page says he was released by Oxford United in 2005 and has since been without a club. But you never know, since Simon Cox (striker) has only come on the scene since then, they may well be the same person, in a Gheorghe Hagi-Hristo Stoichkov type way. Bet you never saw those two in the same room, did you? Bulgaria and Romania were one-man teams at the 1994 World Cup, and their games were always fixed for different days. Coincidence?
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