Ashley Cole: When Romesh Ranganathan, an Arsenal fan, ruined him to his face on TV

Ashley Cole was once adored by Arsenal fans.

The Englishman came through the youth system at Arsenal and made his debut for the club in 1999.

He soon became a regular for the club and helped them to their famous invincible season in 2003/04.

But he would depart the club in highly controversial circumstances in 2006.

A year prior, he was fined £75,000 for meeting with Chelsea without Arsenal’s consent to discuss a potential move.

In the summer of 2006, he called out Arsenal in his autobiography for their treatment of him. He then rejected a contract from the Gunners of £55,000-per-week, an offer that left him ‘trembling with anger’, and completed a move to Chelsea shortly after.

Arsenal fans have never forgiven him for his actions prior to the move across London.

Sixteen years on and there’s still resentment towards him by Gunners fans, a feeling which won’t go away any time soon.

Romesh Ranganathan, an Arsenal fan, took the opportunity to tear into Cole when they appeared alongside each other on Sky’s A League of their Own in 2018.

At the start of the programme, James Corden asks Ranganathan if he still holds any grudges towards Cole.

“Yeah I think he’s a p****,” the comedian said without hesitation. “I mean that in the nicest possible way. If I didn’t rate him at Arsenal, then I wouldn’t have cared if he went to Chelsea… but I hate him.”

Romesh ranganathan living out every Arsenal fans dream by calling Ashley cole a prick pic.twitter.com/8oL3b9Kf5c

In another moment, Ranganathan’s team are asked to guess what musical legend Cole is related to.

He responded: “Will.i.am a traitor? Kanye west London for more money?”