“If you’re listening” “I’m sorry for selling you to Chelsea“ – Ex-Arsenal chief tells Former Chelsea player
David Dein, a former vice-chairman of Arsenal, has admitted that he regretted selling Ashley Cole to Chelsea in 2006.
Dein claimed that allowing Cole to sign a contract with Chelsea was his biggest professional mistake.
Ashley Cole was a member of Arsenal’s Invincible, but as the Gunners declined to increase his pay, Cole eventually signed with Chelsea, who were more than happy to match it.
Cole would go on to establish himself as a legend at Chelsea and the finest left-back in the history of the Premier League.
Ashley Cole has since received an apology from Dein.
Dein told talkSPORT: “We should never have lost him in my opinion, his contract came up for renegotiation and we didn’t offer him the right money.
“Meanwhile, Chelsea did and then there was this thing with the clandestine meeting which is a funny story because I got a call one day from a journalist and he said we’ve got a hot story that your player Ashley Cole is being tapped up by Chelsea.
“I went down to the offices and they said here’s a signed statement from a waiter in a restaurant in the hotel where Ashley Cole was meeting Chelsea.
“He was an Arsenal fan clearly and he gave the story to the News of the World. That was the end really and it was a great shame because Ashley was homegrown and was an Arsenal boy.
“I regret we didn’t do enough at the time to keep him at the club. It was also at a time when we were talking about building the stadium.
“The finances, the tensions were raging about how we were going to finance it we were watching every penny and consequently we didn’t do enough to keep him and I regret that with hindsight.
“Ashley, if you’re listening I’m sorry.”