Wegner: Cole will remember Arsenal fondly

Arsene Wenger is sure when Ashley Cole looks back on his Arsenal career in 10 years, he will appreciate life with the Gunners was not all bad.

The England defender, 25, finally completed his protracted transfer to Chelsea on deadline day, bringing to an end more than a decade at the north London club, where he had come through the Highbury youth ranks and became an integral part of Wenger’s all-conquering side.

Cole insists he did not fall out with Wenger or any of the Arsenal players, despite his relationship with club officials having deteriorated when he felt they failed to back him during a Premier League investigation into his meeting with Blues manager Jose Mourinho in a London hotel last year.

While Wenger admits a sense of relief the drawn-out affair has eventually been concluded, the Gunners boss insists Cole only ever did his best while with his squad.

“Time always helps you to see who helped you in life or not, and one day he will see,” the Frenchman reflected.

“Maybe not this year, but in 10 years he will see that Arsenal was not as bad for him. He has done well for us and we wish him well in the future.

“At the end of the day as a coach or manager you help people and for one part of his career we have helped him to become a world class leftback and now we are completely well with that.

“He is a good guy, but he was in a situation where his feelings towards the club changed.

“Is it his fault? Is it our fault? Is it his agent’s fault? That today is not really important. The most important thing is that he is happy and the club is happy.”

Cole has signed a lucrative five-year deal with the Barclays Premiership champions, reported to be worth £80,000 a week.

However, the defender claims money was not the reason for his move.

Wenger is not surprised the ambitious defender has set his sights on collecting more silverware in west London.

“Ashley is a winner and you cannot say you go to Chelsea to lose,” the Arsenal manager noted.

“He could have had both [money and success] here – but he is asked why he goes to a different club and he says to win trophies. Ashley is a winner.”

Wenger maintains the on-going saga over Cole’s future should have had no affect on the performance of his team this season, which has qualified for the group stages of the Champions League but has yet to win in the Premiership.

“The fact you have players in the squad who are not completely settled and focused on the challenge of the season is a bit disturbing – but I say as well that has nothing to do with the fact we lost at Man City,” the Arsenal manager insisted.

“It was not Ashley Cole’s fault or the fact he was not transferred – it was the players who played and me who are responsible for that. It is just better that it is over.

“It is not a major problem at the club, but when you are half here and half there, it is not the best.”

As part of the deal which took Cole to Stamford Bridge, Arsenal were able to secure the services of versatile French defender William Gallas.

At one stage it seemed the moves may not happen, and Wenger insists had they not gone through, the England left-back would have returned to first-team action with Arsenal.

“If the transfer had not happened Cole would have played for us,” Wenger maintained.

“He became a world class defender here and we were happy with his performances. But he wanted to go and I promised him that he could go.

“When I promised him he could go, it was not with the condition of getting another player in, but just that we got the right price.”

Wenger declared: “If Chelsea had come in and said ‘we want to buy Cole and you will never get Gallas’, I would still have sold Ashley Cole.

“I did not pick Ashley because I had promised I would let him go. He never came to see me and said he did not want to play.

“I offered him that as long as the window was open, I would not play him.”