‘I had no choice but to join Chelsea – I had rug pulled under me by Arsenal’ | Football | Sport

Former Chelsea and Arsenal star Ashley Cole previously maintained that he was forced to leave the Gunners for the Blues in 2006 following broken promises by the north London outfit. Cole’s two previous clubs will clash on Sunday with Arsenal pursuing the title and Chelsea seeking to secure an edge in the battle for Champions League qualification. Cole, now 45, insisted Arsenal went back on a contractual agreement. The former England left-back eventually completed the contentious switch to Chelsea for £5million in 2006, with Blues defender William Gallas moving in the opposite direction.

The transfer prompted a segment of the Arsenal fanbase to conclude the move was motivated by financial gain. That perception was reinforced after Cole infamously disclosed in his autobiography that Arsenal’s fresh contract proposal of £55,000 per week left him “trembling with anger” to such an extent that he nearly crashed his vehicle in shock. Nevertheless, speaking on That Peter Crouch Podcast in January 2025, Cole maintained it was Arsenal’s inability to honour a higher wage they allegedly had committed to.

“My situation was I knew what I was worth,” he said. “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.”

In 2005, Cole notoriously met with Chelsea‘s then-manager Jose Mourinho and club chief executive Peter Kenyon at a London hotel, without notifying Arsenal.

The incident led to a £100,000 fine for Cole, which was later reduced to £75,000 on appeal by the Premier League, and the clandestine meeting was labelled a ‘tapping-up’ scandal.

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When Arsenal and Chelsea clashed in December 2006, sections of the Arsenal fanbase intensified their resentment towards Cole by brandishing counterfeit £20 notes adorned with his face. They also bestowed upon him the nickname “Cashley”; however, Cole stated that he understood their anger.

“It was hard [to leave],” he admitted. “People [don’t] understand the pressure that I was under to leave or to stay,” he said. “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.”

Cole has consistently asserted that his exit was not driven by a quest for higher wages, but rather a pursuit of respect that he believed he deserved.

“It wasn’t that I felt I wasn’t getting looked after because I was a young player,” he added. “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.”

Cole’s controversial switch to Chelsea proved fruitful in the end. Throughout his eight seasons at Stamford Bridge, he made over 330 appearances and secured multiple honours, including the Premier League, Champions League, and four FA Cups.

Arsenal, by contrast, lifted just one FA Cup during that period. Speaking on ITV’s Play To the Whistle in 2017, Cole confirmed he harboured no regrets about his decision to join Chelsea.

He said: “I had a great time there, I missed the old players that were there but I moved on and won every trophy I could. “I wouldn’t look back and say I regretted it, no.”

However, he couldn’t resist taking a swipe at his previous employers. When questioned whether he got much satisfaction from Arsenal’s lack of silverware following his departure, he added: “If I’m honest, yeah – I still think to this day.

“I laugh to myself. I had a lot of history there and I think the way I left was maybe a bit dodgy but the lack of respect they showed me as well.”