Why I love Ashley Cole

Last updated : 18 August 2010 By Olivia Hamilton

Ashley Cole is often in the papers more for his off-field activities than his on-field ones.
This has made him something of a hate figure - but all is not lost for Ashley. There are many people out there who think Ash has being harshly treated.
Here, Chelsea fan Olivia Hamilton tell us why she thinks Ash should be left alone.

Ashley Cole is the best left back in the world, but unfortunately that's not why he's in the papers every other weekend.
But why do people focus on what's written about him in the British papers when half the time it's not even true?
In interviews with Ashley, you can tell he's a shy person who knows he's not loved by a lot of people.
He's grown to accept it, but clearly is upset by it.
It is a shame that he notices and is so affected by those that don't like him more than those that do, but perhaps his vulnerability is his charm!
Maybe he should do what Drogba, Terry and Lampard do and play the supporters - get them on his side.
What he doesn't realise is that he does have a lot of fans out there that don't care about what gets written in the papers, they actually care about him and his performance on the pitch which 9 times out of 10 is perfect.
Ashley's performance for Chelsea is under-appreciated by a lot of people, but as he says it is unfair to put them under the pressure of being judged on their off-pitch actions.
He makes one mistake once in say 10 games, but then people start to criticise him when it isn't deserved.
One match he plays badly and all the other matches where he's played amazingly are completely forgotten about.
Ashley's main haters are probably Arsenal fans because they felt he left for the money, Joe Cole basically left Chelsea the exact same way, just without writing a book and telling the fans why he left.
But Ashley clearly states repeatedly in his book that him leaving Arsenal was a point of principle, he was treated wrongly by the Arsenal board so he felt he had to go.
Of course, the truth from his own words was ignored.
Ashley gets treated unfairly compared to other footballers because of who he was married to, because his wife was loved by most people, anything he did wrong in their marriage was completely over-exaggerated and never forgotten.
In fact, I think she was the first to admit that she may not have been the perfect supportive wife yet he never publicly criticised her.
A lot of other footballers cheat on their wives or girlfriends.
Peter Crouch cheated on his fiancé recently but he's not being given half the amount of stick that Ashley gets.
Just because he married a pop star doesn't mean he should be treated differently.
If he wasn't married to her he wouldn't have had half the amount of negative press he got when he cheated.
Why is it fair for the best left back in the world, the person that probably gave the best performance for England in South Africa, is made to feel he is the most hated man in Britain?
Ashley deserves to be loved and appreciated more because of how he plays on the pitch and not how he 'allegedly' behaves in his personal life.

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