It may have taken almost 40 years, but Ashley Cole hasproven the theory that while English players have many virtues, the thoughtprocess is not necessarily one of them. “The English are great competitors,physically strong, and never knowing when they are beaten,” Paul Breitner, the1974 World Cup winner with West Germany, once said. “But maybe their brainbegins in the toes and terminates at the knees.” He meant football brain, as inthinking before acting on impulse.
It was written thatBreitner was such a deep thinker that he slept with the book of Mao Zedong, theChinese leader, beneath his pillow. He was a free-wheeling left back who couldin an instant turn defense into attack, and in that respect, England’s Cole hasfollowed Germany’s Breitner. There, however, is where comparisons must end.Cole is on the brink of joining a very select band of Englishmen. He is twocaps away from representing his country 100 times, and with a home World Cupqualifier against San Marino , followed by a match against Poland later thismonth. Cole could feasibly emulate the centurions Peter Shilton, David Beckham, Bobby Moore , Bobby Charlton and Billy Wright . Cole could, on the otherhand, get himself barred from that elevated status because of his thoughtless,and at times vulgar, insults. He is up before the Football Association, theruling body of English soccer, because of a tweet after the FA tribunal foundhim an unreliable witness in the long and acrimonious racism case against hisfriend and Chelsea club captain, John Terry. Angered by this, Cole’s fingersdid his talking. “Hahahahaa, well done (hastag)FA I lied did I?” Cole posted onTwitter. He added that the FA were a “bunch of” expletives. That remark wastaken down within an hour of having been posted on Twitter, and it is not knownhow many of Cole’s 440,000 followers on Twitter read it.
Cole is not an especially bad person, though his life islittered with misdeeds that rebound on him. He is known as Cashley Cole for hisbrazen greed when he quit his boyhood team, Arsenal, when Jose Mourinho luredhim to Chelsea. Cole, Mourinho, Chelsea club officials and an agent were caughtconspiring to break his Arsenal contract. All were fined amounts they couldeasily afford. But Cole did not let it lie. He groused in a ghost-writtenautobiography that he had left because Arsenal insulted him and left him“trembling with rage” by offering to pay him a mere 55,000 pounds, or $88,000,per week. Chelsea almost doubled that, and increased the salary again oversubsequent seasons. Will he now complete his century of caps while underinvestigation for bringing the game into disrepute? Down the line, no doubt,Cole will make his century. The FA might follow tradition and mark the occasionwith a silver platter. And with careful coaching, Cole might even graciouslyaccept his elevation into the 100 club.
