CHELSEA FC OFFICIALLY SAY FAREWELL TO ASHLEY COLE

Chelsea Football Club today says goodbye to Ashley Cole, a player who contributed enormously to the highly successfully period in their history in which they were crowned champions of Europe and won the League and Cup double for the first time.

Cole, whose contract came to an end yesterday, was a Chelsea player for eight seasons, making 338 appearances, 13 of those as a substitute, and finding the net seven times.

Throughout that time he was the England team's left-back. He announced his retirement from international football in May having won 107 caps, a record for a full-back and the fifth highest total overall.

His remarkably consistent high level of performance was always appreciated by the Chelsea support, who welcomed him to Stamford Bridge even though he joined from big London rivals Arsenal, with William Gallas moving the other way as part of a transfer-deadline-day deal in August 2006.

Cole has had no reason to regret his switch across the capital, collecting winners' medals for the Champions League, the Premier League, the Europa League, the League Cup, the Community Shield and the FA Cup four times, taking him to his all-time record seven wins in that competition's long history. Arsenal without Cole did not lift silverware until this year's FA Cup final a week after he played his final Chelsea game.

In his first season as a Blue, Cole shared left-back duties with Wayne Bridge as small injury concerns hindered his involvement. Close-season surgery sorted the problem and Cole emerged as first choice for his position in his second season, scoring his maiden Chelsea goal in a 4-0 win at West Ham. He survived an injury scare in training on the eve of the 2008 Champions League Final, recovering to be one of our best players against Manchester United in Moscow, including converting his penalty in the ultimately unsuccessful shoot-out that decided the match. The big occasions and the toughest opponents have never fazed Cole.

In 2008/09, he played 49 games, the last of those an FA Cup final win on a hot, sunny day in late May, when his raiding partnership down the left with Florent Malouda did much to defeat Everton at Wembley. He was named the Chelsea Players' Player of the Year, an award he collected again two years later. He was always a popular member of the dressing room, and captained the team on four occasions.

The epitome of the modern full-back with his tireless running up the flank and back again, and with an uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time (it is unlikely any Chelsea player has cleared so many net-bound balls from on or near the goal-line, certainly not so athletically and with such agility), Cole's best season for goalscoring was the Double-winning 2009/10 year under Carlo Ancelotti.

He scored four times, including the opener in a home win against Tottenham and the final goal in the crowning 8-0 win over Wigan (pictured below) that brought the Premier League trophy back to Stamford Bridge. An earlier goal in another big victory, against Sunderland, was voted Chelsea Goal of the Season.