Former Chelsea defender takes massive pay cut to join Roma

For a man dubbed ‘Cashley’ by the majority of football fans, to hear that Ashley Cole has taken a £160,000 per week pay cut to join Serie A side Roma from Chelsea is something of a shock.

The defender reportedly snubbed various offers from other Premier League sides in order to be respectful to his former club – Chelsea that is, not Arsenal – and now the Daily Mail have reported that he will see his £200,000 per week wages slashed rather dramatically in order to keep this wish.

Cole was keen to stay in one of the top leagues in Europe, feeling quite rightly that he had plenty left to give and that a move to Qatar or the MLS may be for much later in his career, and in all honesty in Italy he is positively a spring chicken anyway!

Of course, Cole is no fool – or his agent is not at the very least – and with performance related bonuses, the left back will net around £80,000 per week which is not too shabby at all.

Chelsea fans are sad to see Cole go and ideally would have wanted to see the defender end his career at Stamford Bridge, but with the emergence of Cesar Azpilicueta and the fact that Cole simply wanted to play football, that was never going to be the case.

It has been a hard summer for the Stamford Bridge faithful, with Cole only one in a line of long serving stars who have left or look to be leaving the club.

Chelsea fans. Would you have kept Cole at the club for at least one more year? Let us know your thoughts below or tweet us @LaFootyettes.