The Footie Fool

The Guardian is reporting that Arsenal are in talks with Chelsea for Ashley Cole and the asking price is £30m.

Is Cole worth that much money, or is it simply because it is Chelsea that the asking price is so high? You have to think that teams heading into negotiations with Chelsea are aware that money is no object, so let’s ask whatever the hell we want, even if it seems ridiculously high. How excited a club must be when Chelsea comes knocking at the door! They immediately know that, whoever Chelsea wants is worth 3 times the normal price simply because they are Chelsea.

You have to think that Arsenal would probably want to move Cole out of England – why sell an asset to your rival? But who else could pay the kind of money that they could get from Chelsea? And, in Chelsea, they know that Cole is wanted, thanks to that messy affair from 2 years ago that probably started this whole transfer mess.

Mind you, the £30m Chelsea might pay on Cole could prove to be a better investment than the £30m they have dished out for Andriy Shevchenko or the £27m for Michael Ballack. Both Shevie and Ballack are entering the end of their careers, with both turning 30 in September, while Cole, at 25, should be entering his peak years. There is a good possibility that Chelsea will be the last stop for both Ballack and Shevchenko, meaning no transfer of assets to another team when those contracts expire. Cole, on the other hand, may still be worth something in 3 or 4 years. So, from a business sense, you have to think that Cole is the better “investment” for the club.

Still sad to see that the Cole situation with Arsenal has deteriorated to a point where he would leave the club that has nurtured him since he was a 16 year old kid. But since the whole Chelsea affair of 2 years ago, you had to know that this day was inevitable.