Do Not Sell My Personal Information
A surprise inclusion in the all time XIs of plenty of gooners recently has been Ashley Cole at left back. The surprise of course comes from the less than amicable circumstances in which he left the club in 2006, as opposed to his ability as a defender.
Like him or not, Cole is one of the best defenders of his generation, and is more than deserving of his place in Arsenal’s all time XI. I, like many fellow gooners, have developed a certain dislike for him after his now infamous tapping up affair with Chelsea, but as far as football ability goes, I must give Cole his just do.
Cole established himself as England number one and to many people world number one, during his time with the club and Arsenal have arguably never possessed another left back with his ability. He of course had massive Nigel Winterburn sized boots to fill and did remarkably well by doing so.
156 appearances, 2 Premier League titles, 3 FA Cups, and 2 Community Shields later, it is safe to say Cole has etched his way into Arsenal folklore. In fact, Winterburn is probably the only other valid choice for left back in the Arsenal all time XI. When selecting your all time XI, success and overall impact have to be factors apart from just ability.
I love Kieran Gibbs as much as the next gooner, and I even think Clichy was a decent defender when he was with us as well, but as for as all time XI goes the choice is clearly between Cole and Winterburn.
Truth be told, any member (regular member) of “The Invincibles” is at least worth a shout in the all time XI, so I am not too surprised to see Cole in so many gooners’ sides.
My distaste for Cole still stands, but my respect for the man will never perish.
Cole is the best lb we ever had and i was disappointed he didnt give an account of how it felt to be a part of that team. I hate his character as he is made of vile substance and cannot believe he left after learning everything he learned from the great men at Arsenal but would still have liked to hear him speak fondly of that time.
None of them compare to King Kenny. Kenny Sansom was Arsenal’s best left back in recent times, no argument
I think Kenny Sansom could possibly have got in front of all of them.