Is this the end of Ashley Cole?

Is It The End Of Ashley Cole (by Owen Meeks)

Another day and yet another headache for all those associated with the England national setup. In yet another startling display of ‘media ignorance’ Ashley Cole decided to make public his feelings of the FA via the now infamous form of Twitter.

The outburst came following the release of a 63 page report released by the FA on the findings into the John Terry racism row. Having found John Terry guilty of using insulting/racially charged language towards Anton Ferdinand, the defender was struck with a 4 game ban and a £220,000 fine. As always the independent commission released their findings following the conclusion of the investigation.

The furore which has come about today surrounds a particular chapter within the commission’s findings entitled ‘evolution of Ashley Cole’s evidence’. In it they state that Cole had amended his witness statement to include the word ‘black’ in order to help Terry’s case, thus there were discrepancies in what he had said he heard Ferdinand say to Terry between early and latter statements. They claim that during the initial interview with the FA on Oct 28th 2011, Cole had not mentioned the word black but that on 3rd Nov 2011 Chelsea club secretary asked the FA for the specific word ‘black’ to be inserted into Cole’s witness statement, suggesting he may have heard Ferdinand use the term.

Upon hearing the FA had queried Cole’s statement supporting Terry; Ashley took to twitter to vent his feelings. In a tirade directly aimed at the football association he tweeted via his official twitter account - "Hahahahaa, well done #fa I lied did I, #BUNCHOFT***S".

The tweet was removed a few hours later and Cole has since come out with a statement apologising for his earlier outburst.

"I had just finished training and saw the captions on the TV screens in the treatment rooms about what was said in the FA commission ruling about me." it read.

"I was really upset and tweeted my feelings in the heat of the moment. I apologise unreservedly for my comment about the FA."

However with the tweet already making its way around the twitterverse (It had been re-tweeted 20,000 times before it was taken down) the FA will already be all too aware of what has gone.
It is yet another embarrassing moment which will again put football amongst the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Only yesterday failure to be aware of the now synonymous public eyes saw Roy Hodgson having to apologise to Rio Ferdinand following revelations that he had discussed his omission from future England squads on a tube journey to watch Arsenal on Wednesday evening.

Whilst this incident will no doubt raise further questions as to the use of Twitter and other such social media outlets by footballers the immediate aftermath will be focused on what this now means for one of England’s longest serving players.

Ashley Cole has won 98 caps for England and on being announced in the squad for this month’s European qualifiers it was thought that he would be collecting Cap 100 in little under 2 weeks time...whether he reaches that landmark now remains to be seen.

For the Chelsea left back it is not the first time he has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. He has made the front pages during a very public split with former wife Cheryl Tweedy whilst also making headlines following an air rifle incident with work experience student in February 2011. Despite this he has remained at the forefront of the England set-up and has continually been labelled one of the best left backs in the world...will this be the final nail in the coffin to his international career or merely another storm which he rides out.
Well in my opinion it could be the end of the line for the player. He is of course not the first to bring about controversy via Twitter, but the problem is not only the tweet itself but in this case the persons it was directed at and the timing of the tweet.

The game is already surrounded in controversy at the moment, one which Ashley Cole was involved in. His tweet, whilst in the heat of the moment, revealed his feelings about a governing body which is fundamentally the head of a team which he represents. Whilst they may not be his employers...when he is wearing the national team kit he is representing not just the nation but the FA.

Regardless of his feelings on the matter they should have been kept private and away from the world of twitter. A social media outlet which, in this day and age players should know can bring about trouble very quickly if the wrong thing is said. Not only that but his tweet also represents something else...He has called into question the integrity of those involved in a case which was dealing with not just racism but respect.
At the very least the player should and hopefully is severely punished by the FA who as yet have declined to comment on the incident.

Given that Rio Ferdinand was fined £45,000 for a supposedly endorsing a tweet describing Cole as a ‘choc ice’ – a slang term suggesting someone is black on the outside and white on the inside, one has to believe that the punishment handed out to Cole will be far more severe given the abuse was aimed directly at those who will enforce the punishment.

Will Cole learn from this...probably not given his failure to learn any lessons when it comes to putting himself in the firing line. My advice if he is reading this would be to stick to playing the game...delete your twitter account and keep your opinions firmly to yourself and those within ear shot...unless of course you’re on the Tube!!

http://v2journal.com/the-end-of-ashley-cole.html

The way he writes on Twitter is like a 2 year old. Honestly can't see why Cheryl was ever with him.

Because she is council estate trash and he was a prominent, rich pro footballer?

I wonder what his views on her keeping his name are? If asked he'd probably wonder why she'd want to call herself Ashley.

Undoubtedly a brilliant footballer but evidently a special case. I wouldn't put my last quid on him being able to tie his shoe laces.

No, certaintly not the end. The FA have made a number of mistakes in the past 12-18 months (Capello, Ferdinand, Terry etc) and a short tweet by Ashley cole calling them tw*ts isn't likely to end his career.

In fairness to him, he's not the brightest spark in the world but he's one of the best in the world at what he does. Due to the fact his perfomances are at such a high level on the pitch it would take something more than a one line tweet for him to be sacked by Chelsea/ England.

No offence to the author, who has taken the time to write such a piece but I felt the article was far too sensationalist (like the Sun/ Daily Mirror love doing).

He's too good of a footballer still for controversies to affect his footballing career.