The left-back who played for both London rivals Arsenal and Chelsea enjoyed a glittering career for club and country.
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Renowned English full-back Ashley Cole has gone down memory lane to revisit some of his notable achievements during his playing days. The left-back who played for both London rivals Arsenal and Chelsea enjoyed a glittering career for club and country. He largely looked back at the great things he did at Stamford Bridge under some of the best managers in the world. He joined the Blues in 2006 when Jose Mourinho was the manager and also played for Carlo Ancelotti later at the club.
Going down memory lane, Asley Cole picked the 2009-10 season as his best in the Premier League. Under Ancelotti’s management, Chelsea were unstoppable, as they played front-foot attacking football in most of their games. Cole thrived in this setup by regularly charging forward to be an important creative outlet for his side. “It probably took me three years too many to win my first Premier League title with Chelsea,” Cole, quoted on the club’s website, recalled.
He added: “I was lucky to be in a dressing room that had some big characters and personalities in there. A goal from our big-game player Didier Drogba won us the 2007 FA Cup, but I understood that this group of players would continue to win because that was the mentality. For me personally, I felt that of all my years playing in the Premier League, the 2009-10 season was the best year I played. Physically, I felt the best I’ve ever felt. I felt very confident going into every game, I felt I was one of the best left-backs going forward, it was my most goal contributions and I felt I could defend.”
The former English international gave a lot of that credit to the influence Ancelotti had on him and the rest of the players. “That was due to Carlo Ancelotti’s influence. The way he man-managed players and the group of us, we had a lot of discipline. It meant a lot because obviously I got a lot of stick for leaving Arsenal, so that day was very important in my own mental state. It was an important season for me and an important season for the club as we did the Double that year, winning the FA Cup again with another goal from Didier,” he explained.
Reflecting on his arrival at Stamford Bridge in 2006, Cole stated that he understood from the get-go about Mourinho’s eagerness to win. It did not take him long to understand the standards required at the club. “I turned up and understood from minute one that the manager only wanted to win and that was music to my ears. The way we trained, day in day out, the expectation was to train as you play, but I really mean that – the tackles used to fly,” he elaborated.
The former full-back added: “I knew the standards and levels were high and that’s what I wanted, to try to win more silverware. I knew with these players around me and that mindset and mentality, it was only going to go one way, because the drive and the competitive nature of that group of players was amazing. After my first day I understood, again, that it’s a tough league but with these players around me ready to fight and battle and give everything, we had more than a chance to do it.”
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