Ashley Cole says being ‘disrespected’ and ‘shafted’ by Arsenal during contract negotiations pushed him to join Premier League rivals Chelsea. Cole had established himself as one of the best players in the league and an England regular when he made the controversial switch from Arsenal to Chelsea in 2006.
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After coming through Arsenal’s academy, Cole made over 200 first-team appearances for his boyhood club, lifting two Premier League trophies and three FA Cups. Arsenal wanted Cole to extend his stay at the club but the defender says he was ‘shafted’ after being offered a less lucrative contract than he was ‘promised’.
![[Arsenal FC 'Iconic' Archive]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-1217611454.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Cole felt ‘disrespected’ by the Gunners and as a result joined Chelsea on a contract worth more than £100,000-a-week. Arsenal fans never forgave Cole for leaving, waving fake £20 notes at him during the following season and dubbing him ‘Cashley’.
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Cole ‘understands’ the frustration from Arsenal fans but says they ‘never knew the full facts’, claiming he was ‘shafted’ by the team he grew up supporting. ‘My situation was I knew what I was worth,’ Cole said on That Peter Crouch Podcast. ‘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. ‘It was hard [to leave]. People [don’t] understand the pressure that I was under to leave or to stay.
