Why Ashley Cole is the only World Class player in England
In a world of over-hyped, over-paid and over-rated footballers how exactly do you define a world class footballer?
If you go by the media frenzy in England Even Aaron Ramsay, Jack Wilshire and Nathan Delfonseo would be world class but if you define a world class player as the best player in his position playing anywhere in the world than you are obviously not an esteemed
tabloid journalist neither a manager of a world class club in the Premier League.
By keeping your definition strict you are eliminating the English advertising hoardings such as Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Cesc Fabregas. If you expand your definition a bit and add that the player should have to be good for more than
a few minutes on the pitch then you are also discounting Gareth Bale – the best player in the world right now. The only player left behind on the basis of this truncated definition in the English Premier League is Ashley Cole.
Ashley has been at the top of his trade for more than a few years now, he has redefined the role of a conventional left back and has left other contenders light years behind. You can sit and try to count his non-existent defensive mistakes or you could count
the number of times he has terrorized the right-backs with his marauding forays forward. Undoubtedly he is the only player in Capello’s (and managers before him) squad whose selection is never doubted.
And ironic as it is you will never hear a Stamford Bridge faithful (if there exists such a thing) singing in praise of the star left back. All his adversaries’ heap grudging admiration but never the love and affection and almost never pride on the one and
only truly world class player playing in the Premier League.
How often do you see an England shirt with COLE written on the back? how many times do you go to a retail store in England or anywhere in the world with Cole as the leading brand ambassador? And how many times does he appear on the back pages of the tabloids
without being branded a love cheat? Never!
Perhaps the reason for all this is his position – full back is the last spot to be filled on any school team sheet and is often a child whose has mismatching legs, some sort of minor disability or is just in the team to make up the number, but at the highest
level full back is a different ball game altogether. Just Ask Carlo how high Ashley sits on his list of most important players for his club and in all likelihood the reply would be, one that the likes of Jon Obi Mikel, Nicolas Anelka and Branislav Ivanovic
won’t be too please about.
Ashley is an attacking wingback with a natural instinct for attacking, equipped with impeccable defensive savvy and boundless energy – we all watched Maicon against Gareth Bale and how he was reduced to smithereens by the young Welshman and then ask yourself
how often you see Cole getting hammered like that on the other wing. After all, he played against Cristiano Ronaldo for Chelsea, and Arsenal both and never suffered a fate as humiliating as Brazilians, he played against Messi for England and Chelsea and still
came out with his reputation intact and suggesting that Bale is better (even in his current form) than Messi or Ronaldo is a blasphemy of the highest order.
Watch Gael Clichy against Shakhtar in the Champions league and ask yourself how often you see Cole suffer a brain fade, watch Patrice in any game this season and ask yourself how many time have you seen Cole getting caught out of position.
Cole is an exemplary wing back who deserves a better legacy. It’s a shame as England’s only world class player is only regarded as a world class ‘C’. Cole deserves to be given credit for what he has done on the pitch, he surely deserves a better legacy and
20 years from now we may only end up wondering why there is no stand anywhere in the world named after the best left back of his era.
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