Ashley Cole in limbo?

Controversy aside, Ashley Cole is probably one of the best left backs England has ever produced. Well, don’t take my word for it, Gerrard agrees univocally too.

Having said that, Cole’s latest transgression on Twitter, the only social networking site that hits back, might have loosened the stronghold he had on the left side of the English side. Not only did that incident lead to excessive defamation, it also led to a rather serious FA misconduct charge. Cole was asked to warm the bench while his teammates slaughtered San Marino, although he was up for assault against the Polish up until the rains played havoc. Hopefully, the pond in Warsaw would’ve cleared by today, giving us the opportunity of witnessing his return to the pitch.

While Captain Steven Gerrard is of the opinion that Cole is a pleasure to play with, he also thinks that the team must enjoy the last few years that Cole has left with them. That statement is as ambiguous as it is confusing, especially, in light of manager Roy Hodgson’s recent comments. While he issued the customary “Ashley is a fantastic player”, he also said that England are now lucky, since they have several options to take up the spot of left back. He seemed to have placed his bets on Leighton Baines, who he thinks delivers and pushes Cole as well; he also spoke of handing more opportunities to younger lads like Kieran Gibbs and Ryan Bertrand. As a matter of fact, Baines started all the games that England have played recently, and the consensus is that he should keep the spot as opposed to the belligerent Cole. There’s a lot of talk also about Cole’s decision to sever ties with Chelsea as he has gotten disillusioned by their stance on his contract extension.

With Cheryl Cole now claiming that Ashley has suffered a mental breakdown due to their seperation, and news of Chelsea paying for therapy, I think the man has bigger problems than missing the starting spot.