Chelsea Are Fast Becoming An Off Field Joke That Could Ruin England's Summer

The Marquis De Sade was never short of a quote or two, but one that currently could be applied to certain members of Chelsea’s first team squad at the current time sprang to mind after today’s latest off field crisis at Stamford Bridge. “Lust is to the other passions what the nervous fluid is to life; it supports them all, lends strength to them all ambition, cruelty, avarice, revenge, are all founded on lust.” Now if there is one thing that I can’t abide in these celebrity soaked times, it is the celebrity sex scandal. Unfortunately, at this current time in the U.K., we can’t escape them

Especially when it seems to be a repeat performance emanating from the Kings Road in West London with a tiresome familiarity. Here we are, on the cusp of a World Cup, England’s overrated golden generation’s last chance to justify the guff, spin and marketing spiel that has surrounded them for the last decade. Just when it seemed the correct manager was in place to finally pull these egotistical bottlers to heel and create a side that finally delivered, we discover that several of them just can’t behave.

Now, I’m of the opinion that Ashley Cole is the best left back in world football, by quite some considerable distance, yet he’s such an unlikable character that it’s difficult to keep your personal view of him from tainting that fact. If there was ever a poster boy for what happens when you blow smoke up some one’s backside, throw money at them and allow them to behave as the wish with no thought of the consequences, then Ashley’s the result.

That animosity towards Cole probably began with his very ill advised autobiography, back in 2006 and one particular quote. “When I heard Jonathan Barnett (Cole’s agent) repeat the figure of £55K, I nearly swerved off the road. He (former Arsenal Director David Dein) is taking the piss Jonathan! I yelled down the phone. I was so incensed. I was trembling with anger. I couldn’t believe what I’d heard.”

Swapping North London for West London in an undercover deal that was sprung in a restaurant didn’t help either and saw William Gallas swap places for Cole. It seems if you constantly give Cole the sensible option or the detached from reality option, he will always go for the latter much to everyone’s chagrin. Like a moody teenager, Cole seems to be his own worst enemy, creating a personality so loathed that the media queue up to take pop shots at him.

Now, I’m not spinning this tale out due to his wife’s unfeasible success here in the U.K., as it seems she is now held up as the nations sweetheart somehow, but if all this off field nonsense was bad enough, Cole fractured his ankle two weeks ago and faces a race to be fit for the World Cup. Recovery from injury is a tough enough ask, but when you’re faced with both a 15 week window, if not less, to prove his fitness and an impending and very costly divorce, life for young Ashley couldn’t be worse.

Of course, the irony in all this is that one of his dalliances has been outed as an employee of Liverpool F.C. and one lets out a sigh of inane boredom by the sheer stupidity of the situation, entirely of Cole’s own making. Capello has got England playing their best football in years, giving them a swagger and a confidence that had been completely destroyed under the dark 15 months of Steve Mclaren’s reign. I’m not angry that Cole’s cheated on his wife for what seems like the umpteenth time, I’m angry that he’s been stupid enough to put Englands chances of winning the World Cup in jeopardy.

Yes, he may have not got there through injury, but we needed our best team to be completely focused on his football. It seems being married to a pop star, earning £110,000 per week and playing for Chelsea and England simply isn’t enough to keep this mans mind on his game. Going on current form, I doubt he’s got much of mind to use, but still, its like the lunatics have taken over the asylum. It seems that England’s chances are being derailed by the behavior of certain players detached from the position they hold in country’s psyche. Grow up the lot of you, the joke isn’t funny anymore.