Transfer saga
In 2005, Cole made inappropriate contact with league rivals
Chelsea over a possible move, without alerting Arsenal to the fact, in a case of "
tapping-up". Found guilty, he was fined £100,000 by the Premier League on 2 June 2005 for a meeting in a hotel in January 2005 between himself, the Chelsea manager
José Mourinho, Chelsea chief executive,
Peter Kenyon, and his agent
Jonathan Barnett. An appeal in August 2005 did not reject the guilty verdict, but his fine was reduced to £75,000. Chelsea were also fined £300,000 and Mourinho was fined £200,000, reduced on appeal in August 2005 to £75,000. Barnett's licence was suspended for 18 months and he was also fined £100,000.
[2]
Cole signed a one year extension to his contract on 18 July 2005, but a year later departed from the club in acrimonious circumstances. On 15 July 2006, Cole launched a verbal attack on Arsenal; in his
autobiography, quoted in
The Sun, Ashley Cole claimed that the Arsenal board had treated him as a "scapegoat" and that they had "fed him to the sharks" over the tapping up affair, disregarding the fact that Cole himself could have avoided the whole affair by not discussing a possible move to a rival club behind Arsenal's back, and the fact that Arsenal were legally obliged to punish Cole for his illegal courting of Chelsea.
[3] Cole was deliberately left out of Arsenal's
2006–07 team photograph,
[4] refuelling press speculation that he would become a Chelsea player.
On 28 July, Arsenal vice-chairman
David Dein had confirmed that Arsenal and Chelsea had been in "civil talks" about the player.
[5] Chelsea insisted they would not raise their £16million bid for the left back, but Arsenal held out for at a higher valuation of £25million.
[6] Negotiations continued throughout August and looked to be heading for deadlock, but eventually Cole signed for Chelsea on 31 August for a fee of £5million, with
William Gallas also going the other way. The deal was closed after the transfer window had officially ended, and was not confirmed until an hour and a half after the deadline had passed.
[7]
Cole was vilified by Arsenal fans following his decision to leave the club, with many alleging that he had moved to Chelsea for the sake of a higher wage. He is now irreverently known as "Cashley" to most football fans because of this. The hostility toward Cole is mostly fuelled by comments made in his biography over Arsenal not willing to inflate his wage to one he deemed proportionate to his skills, and the fact that he almost crashed his car in anger when told the board would not bend to his demands.