August 31, 2006: Arsenal Sell Ashley Cole to Chelsea

March 17, 1978: Elvis Costello & the Attractions release their album This Year’s Model. It included a song titled "I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea."

If only Ashley Cole had listened to that song.

August 31, 2006: On the last day of the Summer transfer window, Arsenal F.C. sell left back Ashley Cole to Chelsea F.C., sending him from North London to West London.

They didn't have much choice.

Making his Premier League debut in 2000, Cole established himself as the best English left back of his generation. He helped Arsenal reach the FA Cup Final in 2001, win the Premier League and the FA Cup in 2002 (winning both is called "The Double"), win another Cup in 2003, produce the PL's only unbeaten season in 2004, and win another Cup in 2005. At 24, he had already won 2 League titles and 3 FA Cups, and had played for England in the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004.

Unfortunately, like so many other great athletes, he began to confuse payment with respect. He wanted £60,000 a week -- with the exchange rate then in effect, this amounted to an annual salary of $3.2 million. Arsenal offered him £55,000 -- about $2.9 million. For a team as big as Arsenal, an additional £5,000 a week shouldn't have been too much to keep the man who, at the time, was the best player at his position in the world, maybe 2nd to Paolo Maldini of A.C. Milan, and only 24 years old.

But Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein, responsible for such negotiations in place of manager Arsène Wenger, wouldn't pay the extra 5 grand. Hearing that over the radio while driving on London's beltway, the M25, Cole, "trembling with anger" as he put it in his autobiography, pulled over, picked up his phone, and called his agent, Jonathan Barnett. He yelled, "They are taking the piss, Jonathan!" The expression -- also "taking the mickey," which comes from Cockney rhyming slang, from "Mickey Bliss" -- is roughly equivalent to the American expressions "busting your chops" or "busting your balls." But Cole considered it a sign of tremendous disrespect.

In January 2005, Cole and Barnett met with Chelsea manager José Mourinho and chief executive Peter Kenyon at the Royal Park Hotel in Lancaster Gate, Central London. Simply having the meeting, without having informed his current club first, was a violation of PL rules. So was negotiating a transfer without the permission of the current club. By offering a contract, of any amount, Chelsea were violating a rule as well. The process is called "tapping-up."

Word got out, and while it didn't seem to affect either team on the field as the 2004-05 season came to a close -- Chelsea won the League, and Arsenal won the Cup -- on June 1, an independent commission charged by the PL with investigating the story issued its findings. Cole was found guilty, and fined £100,000. Chelsea were found guilty, and fined £300,000. Mourinho was found guilty -- a manager should not be present at such a meeting -- and fined £200,000.

Arsenal fans turned on Cole, calling him "Cashley." Rumors abounded, some with more merit to them than others. He was married to Cheryl Tweedy, the lead singer of vocal group Girls Aloud. The joke was that she, white, had to marry him, black, to prove she wasn't a racist; and he had to marry her to prove he wasn't gay. Another rumor spread that he had a gay affair with Jermaine Jenas, a star player with Arsenal's North London arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur; and that, for reasons known only to him, he shoved a cell phone up his ass at a party.

The familiar terrace chant, "Ten men went to mow, went to mow a meadow!" became "Ten men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley!" And the rhyming of his name made another song easy: "Oh, Ashley Cole, yer a fuckin' arsehole!"

He played the 2005-06 season with Arsenal, helping them reach the UEFA Champions League Final. On August 31, having been held out of the team's 1st 2 games of the 2006-07 PL season -- a draw against Aston Villa in the 1st competitive match at the new Emirates Stadium, and a loss away to Manchester City -- Arsenal bowed to the inevitable, and made a trade, a rarity in English football: They sent Cole to Chelsea for £5 million and centreback William Gallas.

Cole made a public statement saying he forgave Arsenal team management for their treatment of him. He... forgave them? They didn't do anything wrong. All they did was offer a great player 91 percent of what he thought he was worth.

Gallas did next to nothing for Arsenal, developed a bad attitude, and was gone within 3 years. Cole played 8 seasons for Chelsea, and, while Cheryl divorced him due to his womanizing -- apparently, he is completely straight -- his on-pitch reputation only grew. Between the 2 London clubs, ended up with 5 Premier League titles, a record 7 FA Cup wins, and, with Chelsea, the 2012 Champions League title.

Whether he will ever be forgiven by Arsenal fans remains to be seen, but he set the pattern for future moves for players like Alexander Hleb, Emmanuel Adebayor, Cesc Fàbregas, Samir Nasri, Robin van Persie and Alexis Sánchez.

*

August 31, 2006 was a Thursday. There were 10 games played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-4 at Yankee Stadium. Randy Johnson was the winning pitcher, although he didn't pitch especially well. He may have been the most disappointing pitcher in Yankee history. Alex Rodriguez went 3-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Derek Jeter went 1-for-2 with 3 walks.

* The New York Mets lost to the Colorado Rockies, 8-4 at Coors Field in Denver. Jeff Francis outpitched Óliver Pérez. David Wright hit a home run for the Mets.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. David Ortiz did not play.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. The game went to 10 innings, and both teams scored on mishandled pitched: The Phillies got a run home in the top half, thanks to a passed ball by Nats catcher Brian Schneider; while the Nats tied the game on a Brian Schneider single, and then, with Ryan Church at bat, Aaron Fultz threw a wild pitch, and Marlon Anderson scored the winning run.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-6 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. Barry Bonds went 2-for-3 with a walk before leaving the game.

* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-3 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago. Jorge Cantú singled home the winning runs in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-1 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Florida Marlins, 5-2 at the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Albert Pujols went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-5 at Ameriquest Field (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* And the Houston Astros beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

August 15, 2011: The Summer of Arsenal's Discontent

Cesc Fàbregas, 2005

August 15, 2011: The great plan that Arsène Wenger, manager of Arsenal Football Club, began 6 years earlier comes crashing down. And the worst Summer of his tenure with the North London soccer team would get even worse.

Francesc Fàbregas Soler was born on May 4, 1987 in Arenys de Mar, Catalonia, Spain. "Cesc" was the midfielder that his hometown club, F.C. Barcelona, didn't want, and Wenger bought him dirt cheap. He built his team around Cesc, dismantling the 2004 "Invincible" team in the process. He built a team of very young players, with the idea of "If you are good enough, you are old enough." He took this young team from the old stadium, Highbury, built in 1913, and moved it into the new Emirates Stadium in 2006.

This transition from veterans to youth, and in particular building around Cesc, was the biggest mistake of Wenger's career. To borrow words Wenger likes to use, Cesc had "the quality" to be one of the greatest players in soccer, but he did not have "the mental strength."

Although he put on some spectacular moves and scored some great goals -- such as an absolute stunner against arch-rival Tottenham on Halloween 2009, just 45 seconds after a Robin van Persie goal -- he got hurt frequently, probably costing Arsenal the 2007 and 2011 League Cup Finals.

He and van Persie helped Arsenal win the FA Cup as reserves in their 1st full season, 2004-05, and they reached the 2006 Champions League Final, but losing to Barcelona. But, between the two of them, they won nothing more for Arsenal: They finished 2nd in the League in 2008, and reached the Semifinals of both the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League in 2009, but got no closer to significant honors.

Barça, always media-savvy, had articles and columns printed suggesting that Cesc was merely on loan to Arsenal, was homesick there, and that it was his destiny to return to his hometown, to his original club -- which had gotten rid of him without realizing what he could be, much as Feyenoord of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, had done with van Persie.

Cesc was a member of the Spain team that won Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup, and Euro 2012. But at the celebration for the 2010 World Cup in Madrid, the Spain team's Captain, Carles Puyol, also Barcelona's Captain, put a Barcelona jersey on Cesc, over his Spain jersey. And another of Spain's Barça players, Andres Iniesta, called him "The future of Spain, the future of Barcelona" at that ceremony -- in Madrid, where Barça are despised.

And he let them, even though his contract with Arsenal ran 2 more years. In a 2011 Champions League match, he passed not to an Arsenal teammate, but to a Barcelona player, setting up their winning goal.

It was not his last piece of treachery, not his last gift to his once-and-future teammates. Accusations of secret meetings between Cesc and Barça, a.k.a. "tapping-up," abounded. At the dawn of the 2011-12 season, he went on strike, pretending to be injured until he got sold back to Barça. He turned up at a tennis tournament in Spain, appearing not to be injured. For this poisoning the atmosphere at the club, I called him "Cesc Mustardgas."

On July 4, left back Gaël Clichy was sold to Manchester City for £7 million. He was supposed to be the successor to Ashley Cole, after "Cashley" had whined his way across town to free-spending West London team Chelsea.

On July 31, hosting the Emirates Cup tournament, Arsenal lost 19-year-old rising star Jack Wilshere for the season with a broken ankle. He was never the same player. And an own goal in the 84th minute forged a 1-1 draw with the New York Red Bulls, featuring former Arsenal star Thierry Henry. Since club rules mandate at least 10 seasons' service, and Henry had only played 8 seasons for Arsenal, this would be the closest thing to a testimonial that they could give him.

On August 15, Arsenal bowed to the seemingly inevitable. After getting Fàbregas from Barcelona for free 8 years earlier, he was sold to them for £35 million.

More was to come. The next day, popular but inconsistent right back/winger Emmanuel Eboué was sold to Galatasaray of Istanbul, Turkey for £4 million. On August 24, Samir Nasri, a French winger who seemed to play well with Fàbregas, but listlessly without him, was sold to Manchester City for £25 million. Arsenal now had an extra £71 million, but were missing 4 key players, 5 if you count the occasionally effective Eboué.

Arsenal's start to the season couldn't have been much worse. They opened the Premier League season with a 0-0 draw away to Newcastle United. Liverpool came into the Emirates, and beat them, 2-0. And then, on August 28, Arsenal went to Old Trafford to play Manchester United, who were coming off a season where they won the Premier League and reached the Champions League Final. United were at full strength.

Arsenal were not. Fàbregas, Nasri and Clichy had been sold; while goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, usual starting right back Bacary Sagna and centreback Thomas Vermaelen were injured. With 6 players who should have started either sold or injured, Arsenal fell behind 2-0 in the 1st half-hour, allowed 3 goals in a 6-minute stretch in the 2nd half, had emergency right back Carl Jenkinson sent off with a 2nd yellow card in the 77th minute, and lost, 8-2, their goals coming from Theo Walcott and van Persie. The jokes immediately followed: "I'd 8-2 be an Arsenal fan now."

Wenger had brought in reinforcements. The aforementioned Jenkinson had been brought in from Southeast London team Charlton Athletic for £1 million, and turned out to be a good backup. Winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was bought from South Coast team Southampton for £12 million, and he became a good backup. Striker Joel Campbell came from Costa Rica for £1 million.

Left wing Gervinho, of the African nation of the Ivory Coast, came from French team Lille for £10 million. Quickly, to the tune of "Volaré," Arsenal fans began comparing him to Fernando Torres, who had been sold by Liverpool to Cheslea for £50 million: "Gervinho, whoa! Gervinho, whoa! He scores more than Torres! For 40 million less!" But his defining feature was his rather large cranium: "Gervinho, whoa! Gervinho, whoa! His forehead is immense! He'll rip up your defense!"

But after a good start, he "lost his shooting boots." He had this nasty habit of getting within shooting range, or within passing range of a teammate in shooting range, and then hesitating, and then making a bad pass. It got to the point where someone watching a game with me for the first time would think his full name was "Gervinho What the Hell!" I wanted him to succeed at Arsenal, but he just didn't. After 2 poor seasons, Arsenal sold him at a loss to Italian team AS Roma. He did help his country win the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

On August 31, the final day of the transfer window, Wenger brought in 4 players, in what was largely seen as a "panic buy." Midfielder Mikel Arteta was signed from Everton for £10 million, affecting the club in ways that couldn't yet be guessed. Israeli midfielder Yossi Benayoun was brought in on loan for the season from Chelsea. These acquisitions would shore up the losses of Fàbregas and Nasri.

Needing size in central defense, the 6-foot-6 Per Mertesacker was signed from German team Werder Bremen for £8 million, and "the Big Fucking German" proved very popular among Arsenal fans. Left back André Santos was brought in from Istanbul team Fenerbahçe for £6 million. He would not prove to be popular.

So, 4 players out, 7 players in, and Wenger made a profit of £23 million. Given that the debt for the new stadium had not yet been paid off, this was clever management. But would there be the necessary results on the pitch?

After a week off for an international break, or an "interlull," as Arseblog author Andrew Mangan called it, Arsenal beat Swansea City at home, 1-0. But they lost 4-3 away to Blackburn Rovers. They beat Bolton Wanderers at home, 3-0, then lost away to arch-rival Tottenham, 2-1. Played 7, won 2, drawn 1, lost 4. As late as the last day of the next interlull, October 15, they had won just 7 out of a possible 21 points. They were in 15th place out of 20. The season was 1/6th over, and they were in danger of being relegated.

But they only lost 1 of their next 12 League games, including winning their next 5. A 3-game losing streak in January was followed by a 7-game winning streak. That put them back into a chance for the PL's CL places. A run of a loss and 3 draws put that back in jeopardy, but a hard-fought win away to West Bromwich Albion on the final day preserved a 3rd-place finish and a place in the 2012-13 Champions League.

Back to August 2011: Once the sale of Fàbregas to Barcelona happened, his injury was magically cured. He reported to the Catalan club, and played in their next La Liga game. With them, he won Spain's Copa del Rey in 2012 and La Liga in 2013.

But by 2014, having got what they wanted from him, Barça had frozen him out. Many Arsenal fans begged Wenger to take him back. He refused: Loyalty matters, and Cesc had stabbed him in the back. So Cesc went for the money, signing with Chelsea. He won 2 Premier League titles in 3 years with the corrupt Stamford Bridge club.

More than Ashley Cole, Aliaksandr Hleb, Emmanuel Adebayor, Samir Nasri, Robin van Persie and Alexis Sánchez, Cesc Fàbregas is the great unfaithful servant of Arsenal's history.

*

August 15, 2011 was a Monday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals, 7-4 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. A.J. Burnett was the winning pitcher. Derek Jeter went 3-for-4 with a stolen base and 3 RBIs. Alex Rodriguez did not play.

* The New York Mets beat the San Diego Padres, 5-4 at Petco Park in San Diego. The winning run was scored in the top of the 10th: Scott Hairston grounded to short, and the fielder's choice allowed Jason Pridie to score.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-4 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-2 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-6 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-0 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee. Randy Wolf pitched 8 innings of 6-hit shutout ball, and John Axford finished the 7-hit shutout.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Houston Astros, 4-3 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Florida Marlins, 7-4 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Los Angeles Angels, 8-4 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 6-2 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the O.co Coliseum).

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-5 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle.

* And the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox, the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Indians, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Washington Nationals were not scheduled.