This verbal garbage is just a mask

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Apparently, Chelsea have a policy that forbids employees from debating issues that might be detrimental to the club. It's a policy of convenience.

Thus, when Peter Kenyon is asked whether he would like the chance to officially deny that he met Ashley Cole, he can say: "We're not going to add to speculation. We don't want to debate it because that is club policy."

Anyone with half a brain knows that such verbal garbage is simply a shield behind which you hide. It's designed to save having to lie.

Hopefully, such a policy will not prevent the FA Premier League getting to the bottom of claims that Kenyon, Jose Mourinho and various agents met with Cole, under contract to Arsenal, with the intention of enticing him to Chelsea.

The Premier League, and the sport's guardians, The Football Association, both have a duty to establish the rights and wrongs of the claims against Chelsea.

If Chelsea are found to be in breach of the rules, an appropriate punishment should be applied. If this means a loss of points, then so be it. Frankly, any other penalty to a club with Chelsea's financial resources would be meaningless.

Though it would be unfair to hold their wealth against them, we can insist that their financial muscle does not buy them the right to throw their weight about. They have assumed an unappealing arrogance, perfectly illustrated by the way they are said to have summoned Cole to a west London hotel to discuss a possible transfer - and then denied it ever happened.

This "tapping" of another club's contracted player is not uncommon, but if the Premier League allow Chelsea to get away with a case of this significance what kind of message would that send to the rest of the professional game?

 

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