With the domestic top flight campaign calendar currently on pause to allow the March international round of matches to take place, on Monday of this week it was announced that former England international left back, Ashley Cole, had now become the latest player to be inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame.
The now 43 year old, football coach and occasional pundit, won the league title three times during his professional playing career (twice with Arsenal and once with Chelsea) during what was a very successful spell on the pitch.
Having been a part of Arsenal’s 2003/04 title winning ‘Invincibles’ team’, his spell with the club amounted to over 200 appearances across all competitions, before the former Crystal Palace loanee then made the rather controversial move to Chelsea.
Over 300 appearances for them across all competitions, then saw a short spell with Roma, a three year experience in the MLS with United States side LA Galaxy, before he finally hung up his boots with Derby County, and properly moved into the world of coaching in the summer of 2019.
In total, he racked up 385 PL appearances having made his debut back in 2000, with his final appearance coming in 2014 – and a 14 year top flight record for anybody is certainly not to be sniffed at by anyone looking in from the wider world of football.
Cole now becomes the 22nd player to be inductee into the Premier League Hall of Fame and whilst that should be applauded, and his career achievements cannot be questioned, in the modern age of football there will certainly be those fans who wonder why Cole has been anointed ahead of plenty of other very worthy potential candidates.
Naturally, in his favour is the fact that he has the ‘Invincibles’ record in his bank, and three titles speak for themselves. Add that to Arsenal are one of Sky’s top six perceived favoured clubs, so it stands to reason, especially when you look at the other 21 appointed to the Hall of Fame.
The very worthy others, with arguably a bigger claim to such fame as they were not surrounded by the applicable team mates who made a massive on pitch difference to results, will follow in due course. You would hope, at least I hope.
Otherwise, this is simply going to be one of the worst themed Hall of Fame’s to ever exist in sport, because it will be fan fiction, picked by people who want a night out with their favourites and actually has very little to do with real achievement in the first place.
Cole absolutely deserves his place in that 22 given the stellar career he had – as do the other inductees undoubtedly – but it was launched in 2021, if it is meant to be a deserved award for a career, why are they obsessed with only certain clubs?