Ashley Cole says he was forced to leave Arsenal in 2006 because the club broke a promise they’d made to him.
The England icon, 44, said he felt “disrespected”, ultimately prompting a £5million (plus William Gallas) move to Chelsea. In his autobiography, Cole infamously admitted he was left “trembling with anger” and nearly drove his car off the road after hearing that the Gunners were offering him just £55,000 per week – a figure Chelsea reportedly doubled when they signed him.
But according to the legendary left back, his umbrage stemmed from the fact that Arsenal had promised to pay him a lot more. “My situation was I knew what I was worth,” he said on That Peter Crouch Podcast.
“If you don’t want to pay it, no problem. But we did agree to pay it. Everything was agreed and then they pulled the rug [from] under me. They broke their promise – I couldn’t tell you why.”
Cole’s move to Chelsea followed a charm offensive that lasted more than 18 months. In 2005, he met Blues manager Jose Mourinho and chief executive Peter Kenyon in a London hotel without informing Arsenal, prompting a £100,000 fine (later reduced £75,000 on appeal) from the Premier League for attending a ‘tapping-up’ meeting. Chelsea were also fined £300,000, and Mourinho was fined £200,000, while Cole’s agent, Jonathan Bartlett, had his licence suspended for a year-and-a-half, on top of a £100,000 fine.
When Cole’s move to Chelsea was confirmed, Arsenal fans felt betrayed, particularly since the defender was an academy graduate, and seen, by many, as a future captain of the club. When the two sides met for the first time since the transfer in December 2006, Gunners supporters waved fake £20 notes with pictures of Cole, dubbed “Cashley”, on them.
However, Cole claims he was the biggest victim of the saga and that he didn’t deserve to be branded an instigator. “It was hard [to leave],” he said. “People [don’t] understand the pressure that I was under to leave or to stay.
“Ultimately I felt disrespected, this is my point of view, I felt disrespected. It is what it is, but sometimes when I speak to fans [and they say], ‘You left, you hurt me’, I’m like, ‘Hold up’. People don’t realise that I was the one who got hurt the most. That was my boyhood club, I’d been living the dream. But I got shafted.”
Arsenal icon Martin Keown recently admitted that players who came through at Arsenal were treated differently to players who had been brought in by manager Arsene Wenger and that the disparity was reflected in salaries. Cole, however, insists he wasn’t looking for mega wages but rather the sort of treatment he felt he deserved.
“It wasn’t that I felt I wasn’t getting looked after because I was a young player,” he continued. “I didn’t ask for [Thierry] Henry’s or [Patrick] Vieira’s [wages]. I didn’t want that. I was nothing to do with them. I just knew what I was worth and they broke their promise.
“I look back and I was bitter. In my head I was going, ‘You put me through some s***’. And they just went like, ‘Ash, you deal with it, and it’s nothing to do with us’. And I’m whatever age I was, 23, and I’m like, ‘You knew what happened’.
“I think [former Arsenal vice-chairman] David Dein came out and mentioned something recently. But it took him like 20 years. For 20 years I got abused. I don’t blame fans [though]. I understand their frustration. They didn’t know the full facts, they didn’t know the truth.”
Despite all the drama, his contentious move to Chelsea ultimately paid off. In eight years at Stamford Bridge, Cole made over 330 appearances and lifted eight major trophies, including the Premier League, the Champions League and four FA Cups. In the same period, Arsenal clinched just one major honour – the FA Cup.
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