Ashley Cole Addresses Arsenal Exit: They Disrespected Me & Now I Laugh At Their Troubles

By The Editor
on 22nd March 2017

Ashley Cole speaks on Gunners exit…

Ashley Cole has spoken about his Arsenal exit in detail for the first time and the left-back believes that some figures at the club disrespected him during the infamous period.

Cole became embroiled in a contract dispute with the club during the 2005-06 season and missed almost the entire campaign with a mysterious injury as rumours surrounding his future mounted.

The England centurion was also tapped up by Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, something the Blues and the player were eventually found guilty of after Arsenal launched a complaint.

With just 12 months left on his deal, Arsene Wenger and David Dein negotiated a swap deal with Chelsea as William Gallas came up to north London having fallen out with Mourinho.

“I had a great time there and I miss some of the players that were there when I was there, but I moved on and won every trophy I wanted to win,” Cole said on ITV’s Play to the Whistle show.

Asked by Arsenal fan Romesh Ranganathan if he occasionally laughed to himself after he left given that we experienced a trophy drought, Cole went a step further.

“If I’m honest, I still, to this day, laugh to myself. The way I left may be dodgy, but I think there was a lack of respect they showed me as well.”

The Ashley Cole saga may well be one to watch out for in Wenger’s book given that, under little financial pressure, we allowed the most successful product of our youth team to waltz across London and join our fierce rivals.

The 36-year-old was instantly labelled as a greedy footballer, but we’ve seen similar situations occur with a number of our star players since then.

Check out Ashley Cole’s full take in the video above.