Ahead of two of his former sides facing off at London Stadium in the Premier League on Monday evening (8pm BST kick-off), Cottee remembers how his own development as a player began while cheering on his beloved West Ham...
Cottee was barely a teenager when he took to the terraces at Upton Park to watch and study one player in particular.
An avid West Ham supporter, Tony was also an aspiring centre forward with dreams of making it to the top as a professional with his own club.
And so, to aid his own progression, the youngster was intent on picking up the traits and talents displayed by his hero - Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson.
Robson, who started his career at Newcastle United in 1962, had two spells with the Hammers, firstly following his north east departure after nine years on Tyneside, and then again between 1976 and 1979.
And it was during his second stint in the capital that Cottee began his fascination with Robson’s all-round game, which would have a significant impact on his own skills as a centre forward.
“Growing up as a mad West Ham fan as I was, I started to go to the games as a 13-year-old with my friends, in about 1978,” the ex-West Ham, Everton and Leicester City frontman began.
“The West Ham players up front, one was called David Cross, who was nicknamed ‘psycho’ and was a traditional centre forward battering ram, but he could play as well, and he was a good finisher.
“And the guy who played alongside him was Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson, who scored over 200 league goals. He was a fantastic goalscorer, he won the golden boot in the early '70s, scoring 28 league goals.
“But this was his second spell back at the Club. He played for them in the early '70s, went to Sunderland and then returned to West Ham. That was when I started to watch him.
“He was about 5ft 8ins, a real stocky type centre forward playing alongside a targetman. I wanted to learn; at that stage I’d made up in my own mind that I wanted to be a footballer. So, the guys I looked to learn from were Pop Robson, Gerd Müller and Kevin Keegan. All three were very small players.
“I worked out at this stage that I wasn’t going to be 6ft 2ins, so that was the thinking behind it. When I spoke to my dad, who was very influential on my career, he told me to watch the 5ft 8ins centre forwards to see what they do.
“When I used to go to West Ham as a kid, that was the reason. I was a West Ham fan before that, but Pop Robson was my hero. I had a three-year spell as a season ticket holder before I joined the club and I just used to watch Pop. I loved watching him play and scoring all the goals.”
Robson netted a total of 47 league goals across his second spell at West Ham in the late 1970s, but it was far from just his ability to find the back of the net which impressed the receptive Cottee.
Focusing on the specifics of what made the Sunderland-born frontman such an efficient centre forward, Cottee picked out several points.
“I think it was his movement in the box,” the LCFC TV and LCFC Radio regular enthused. “When I used to go to the games, it was open terracing. It was first-come-first-served. If you got there early enough, you could get your position.
“I used to start level with the six-yard line looking across towards the goal. How it was in those days with the crowds, by the time the game finished, invariably I was on the 18-yard box or the corner flag.
“But I positioned myself there to watch his movement. While I was supporting the team, I was very much watching what he did as a player and how he held the ball up, for instance. As a small player, that was very important.
“In the early days, I always found it fascinating how many goals he scored with his head as well, as he was only 5ft 8ins. I worked out that it was more about movement than it was about being tall.
“I took that into my game and Leicester fans will remember I scored quite a few headed goals when I was at the Club. A lot of that revolved around the movement that I learned as a kid.
“The one thing that Pop was always better at than me was being a real team player. Not too dissimilar to my old team-mate Frank McAvennie, who I played alongside in the '80s. They were both fantastic players who worked really, really hard for the team.
“That was something I always struggled with. Probably the best that I ever was as a team player was when I got to Leicester in my late 30s, near the end of my career. Leicester got the best of me as a team player, there’s no doubt about that.”
Alongside David Cross, Robson formed an effective ‘little and large’ partnership at West Ham, a role that Cottee would also work within during his senior career. This included for Leicester while playing with fellow 2000 League Cup winner Emile Heskey and then, for a brief spell, Stan Collymore.
Although a two-man attack was a feature of the Foxes' 2020/21 campaign, it has recently become a rarity to see such a tactic deployed in the modern game.
Cottee explained: “It was more traditional in those days and very stereotypical that you had a 4-4-2 and part of that was a targetman and a man who fed off the knockdowns. Pop Robson definitely benefitted from having a physical player like David Cross alongside him.
“When the ball was hit down the pitch, especially in the days when the back pass rule wasn’t in force, the goalkeeper would pick the ball up. And then the opposition were squeezed into making it hard for him to throw the ball out and defenders weren’t encouraged to get on the ball.
“So, in the end, the goalkeeper just waved everyone up, pushing towards the halfway line and then of course you’ve then got the big thump from the goalkeeper, so Pop would have learned from playing alongside the big centre forward.
“When I went to Leicester, although you wouldn’t call Heskey an old-fashioned centre forward, because he had a lot more to his game than that, he was a physical presence up there and when the ball was played down the middle, I used to shout: ‘Hesk, it’s your ball, I’m not going for that one!’.
“Of course, the role of the centre forward has evolved so much now. Even to the point where Leicester were an outlier last year playing [Kelechi] Iheanacho and [Jamie] Vardy up front, because most teams just play the one up front.
“And of course that one has to be able to hit the ball, sprint, run, hold the ball up, score goals. There’s a lot that it takes to be a centre forward, basically what Jamie Vardy does on a matchday.
“I was categorised as a goalscorer and that was on the basis that I scored the goals, but the physical aspect was done by a David Cross type. Those days have certainly changed now. It’s definitely a different role now for the centre forward to play.”
Cottee himself, of course, went on to have a distinguished career as a frontman in the top-flight, scoring 226 goals in league competition, just short of Robson’s own tally of 266. He also represented his country on seven occasions, an honour which ‘Pop’ was deserving of, Cottee believes.
“He had an incredible career,” Cottee added. “And he was one of those players that really should have got an England cap, but if you look at all the players that were around at that time, there were plenty of top goalscorers and maverick players in the '70s, so unfortunately he never got the caps that he deserved.
“He’s always been a really top guy and if you look at his record, he is a bit of a rarity because he played twice for West Ham, twice for Newcastle, he played for Sunderland, Carlisle and he played for Chelsea as well at the end of his career.
“They always say don’t meet your idols, but it could not be any further from the truth with Pop. He was an absolute gentleman, a very quiet and unassuming guy and I loved it when I met him.
“I was obviously telling him all the tales of watching him from the terraces and talking about Crossy and he was just a real joy to be with. I’ve met him a few times over the years and he’s never disappointed me as a person."