{"id":252901,"date":"2025-11-09T10:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T10:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/252901\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T10:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T10:44:09","slug":"ashley-cole-says-he-used-to-find-one-manchester-united-player-so-annoying-to-play-against","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/252901\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashley Cole says he used to find one Manchester United player \u2018so annoying\u2019 to play against"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former Arsenal and Chelsea defender Ashley Cole has named a Manchester United player he didn\u2019t like to play against because he found him \u2018so annoying\u2019.<\/p>\n

A lot has changed since the days Ashley Cole competed against Manchester United<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Renowned as one of the best left-backs to ever play in the Premier League, Cole represented Arsenal and Chelsea at a time United dominated English football under the leadership of Sir Alex Ferguson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"mailJoin our newsletter for news & smart analysis. <\/p>\n

Cole\u2019s ability was recently praised by Paul Scholes<\/a> on a podcast where he suggested Ole Gunnar Solskjaer<\/a> was one of the few players he had seen cause trouble for Cole on the pitch, although Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a> may have something to say about that.<\/p>\n

Cole also spent time at AS Roma and LA Galaxy before turning to England in 2019 for a short spell at Derby County.<\/p>\n

Despite playing in Italy and the United States, Cole\u2019s fiercest battles came in the Premier League<\/a>, especially against United.<\/p>\n

\"AshleyPhoto by Ben Roberts \u2013 Danehouse\/Getty ImagesGary Neville annoyed Ashley Cole more than other players<\/p>\n

Cole faced United in 33 matches throughout his career from his spells at Arsenal and Chelsea.<\/p>\n

The respected former left-back won 12 of those matches, drew 6 and lost a total of 15 as United came out on top more times than not.<\/p>\n

This helps highlight how dominant United were under Ferguson.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest blow for Cole was losing the 2008 Champions League<\/a> final against United in Moscow. The former England international won three Premier League titles but never lifted the European Cup.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Premier League Productions<\/a>, Cole revealed that he feels Gary Neville was underappreciated, especially in terms of getting forward as a full-back.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could work in all areas of the pitch,\u201d Cole said. \u201cI don\u2019t think he gets as much credit going forwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying he\u2019s an attacking full-back, but he wasn\u2019t a slouch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to swear mate, but he was so annoying, he used to do my head in, but I probably did his head in as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what Neville was like to play against, Cole added that he was \u201cso annoying\u201d and used to do his head in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to swear mate, but he was so annoying, he used to do my head in, but I probably did his head in as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gary Neville explains bust-up with Ashley Cole<\/p>\n

Neville previously claimed that Cole screamed in his face after a bust-up in the tunnel, after he had been unfairly targeted by former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira, who was later told to pick on someone his own size by Roy Keane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was a famous row that happened when United and Arsenal were often head-to-head competing for Premier League titles.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the incident and how Cole got involved, Neville told the Stick to Football podcast about a heated exchanged with his former England teammate: \u201cThe tunnel game at Arsenal \u2013 they were so fired up before the game. Arsenal scored the first goal \u2013 it was 4-2, we [Manchester United] won in the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m literally sat next to Ashley Cole in the dressing room for England, for 6,7,8 years, and Ash comes up to me screaming in my face, you f******, after they score the first goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cCole \u2013 the most placid \u2013 brilliant lad, I\u2019m like, \u2018What the f***\u2019? A couple of weeks later, you\u2019re literally sat there next to him shaking hands. There was so much going on!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Arsenal and Chelsea defender Ashley Cole has named a Manchester United player he didn\u2019t like to play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,33718,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-252901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-gary-neville","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}