In an exclusive interview with Setanta’s chief football reporter Dan Roan ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final between Arsenal and Chelsea, Ashley Cole has revealed that he hopes Gunners fans can recognise what he achieved with the club, even if the deeply-contentious nature of his move to Stamford Bridge means they are unlikely to forgive him any time soon.
Saturday’s encounter between the two rival clubs at Wembley will be given an extra edge, if any were needed, by the presence of Cole who was found guilty of making an illegal approach to Chelsea in June 2005, a year before he moved to West London in a swap deal involving William Gallas.
Arsenal fans were infuriated by what they perceived as an act of betrayal committed by a player who was born an Arsenal fan, was a rare English graduate from the club’s academy and had been tipped as a future captain of The Gunners.
Arsene Wenger has always urged those Arsenal fans who hold a grudge to remember Cole’s contribution to the club’s recent successes though, with the left back winning The Premier League twice and the FA Cup three times, as well as playing a key role in the Invincibles season of 2003-2004.
And while Cole admits that Arsenal fans are unlikely to forgive or forget in the coming years, that does not change the fact that he yearns for a day when the vitriol recedes and his achievements in North London are recognised.
http://www.setanta.com//uk/Articles/Foo ... nid-48998/“I’ve dealt with it a lot now, it seems like every game I get it,” Cole told Setanta Sports. “I try and block it out as much as I can and get on with my game.
“Sometimes it can affect me, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it makes me want to prove people wrong and prove I was good at Arsenal, that I did win things.
“Sometimes you want them to still love you and it’s not going to happen, but that’s life.
“They’ll always have a place in my heart but I don’t see in the next few weeks or years Arsenal fans singing my name. Fans are funny, they sometimes forget a little bit too easily.
“I left whether they liked it or not, but as a person you do have to respect someone’s views, opinion, and values for their life, and have to respect that. But I don’t see them forgetting.
“I don’t blame them. I’ve got on with my life, everyone else seems to have got on apart from the fans – it’s their right, they don’t have to like me, but there’s nothing I can do.”
