Cold War is getting to Cole

The defender admits recent boardroom conflicts may be affecting the Chelsea players, writes Andrew Fifield.

It was Jose Mourinho's 44th birthday yesterday, not that Ashley Cole appeared to know.

"Is it?" he said, when informed of the Special One's special day. "Oh, right. Well, happy birthday to him then."

Cole was not aware of any official celebrations being held to mark the Chelsea manager's continuing march into middle age, although that is hardly surprising.

A party would have been paid for out of Roman Abramovich's pocket, and given club owner and head coach are not even on speaking terms at the moment, the Russian was hardly likely to lay out the bunting and vol-au-vents.

It has been a fairly typical week at Stamford Bridge. Monday brought angry recriminations over the wretched defeat at Liverpool last Saturday; Tuesday a passage to next month's League Cup final; Thursday extended analysis of Abramovich's recent absences from key fixtures; and Friday a typically frank outburst from Didier Drogba, who claimed Chelsea's slump in form was due to the infighting in the club's higher echelons.

Cole is not generally noted for his ability to elicit sympathy - the publication of his preposterously self-serving autobiography last summer saw to that - but it was possible to feel a twinge of pity as he desperately attempted to fend off inquiries yesterday about the chaos engulfing his club.

For the most part, the England defender kept an admirably straight bat, but he conceded Drogba was not alone in harbouring annoyance with the incessant backbiting.

"To some degree, what Didier said is true," he said. "We don't know exactly what's going on but the results haven't been too good, so maybe it has had an impact. We try not to think about it too much because ultimately it is not something we can control: it's for other people higher up to sort out. Our concerns is the results and we need to change them because they haven't been good enough."

It says much about the standards set in west London since Mourinho's arrival that Cole even gave credence to the idea that Chelsea are in the throes of a full-blown crisis. His team have lost just once in their last 16 matches, Mourinho has still to taste defeat on home soil - a proud record that is unlikely to be dented by the visit of Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup tomorrow - and hopes of a clean sweep of all four major trophies this season are not delusional.

But this has never been just about the football. This is a power struggle, pure and simple, between a manager used to getting his own way and an owner who, perhaps not unreasonably, feels his £250-million investment over three-and-a-half years gives him the right to do more than simply smile benignly from his lofty vantage point in Stamford Bridge's west stand.

Relations between the two are now of the frosty, Cold War variety, Mourinho complaining bitterly of an apparent lack of control over playing matters, notably the inclusion of Andriy Shevchenko, and Abramovich denying his manager funds for a new-year shopping spree that might have made light of John Terry's troublesome back injury.

As Cole noted yesterday, the days of the Siberian simply "chucking money" at the club are over, though he was not aware of any slackening of the owner's interest in the fortunes of his pricey plaything. "He's enthusiastic and he loves the club," he said. "I know for sure he still wants us to do well and win things."

The bickering has also not hamstrung the chance of a third successive Premiership title but it has ruptured the spirit that has fuelled the club's ambitions. Where Chelsea were once united, they are now divided; where there was harmony, there is now discord. Teams that used to arrive in London SW6 intent solely on damage limitation have been pepped by the appearance of unexpected cracks: they have sensed, Cole believes, a "vulnerability".

That also applies to the 26-year-old. Cole deserved his reputation as the world's best left-back last season when he helped Arsenal to the Champions League final, but the move across London has corroded his reliability. He has produced a string of uncharacteristically shaky performances, to the extent that he was recently singled out for scathing criticism by the BBC pundit Alan Hansen.

Cole has endured more damaging public scrutiny than that, most obviously when the News of the World printed lurid, and ultimately unfounded, allegations about his private life last February, but criticism always stings.

"It wasn't nice - I'm a person, not just a footballer, and I have feelings just like everyone else," he said. "His (Hansen's) comments did make me look at my performances in a few games and I agreed with him on certain aspects but I can't be expected to play well every game.

"It was never going to be easy and I admit it's taken a bit of time for me to get used to things here, even if I was only joining from Arsenal. But I still feel the criticism is a bit unjustified."

The one critic who counts, of course, is Mourinho. As Shevchenko can confirm, few managers can rival the lash of his tongue, though publicly at least, Cole has escaped censure. The bond between the two is watertight and Cole, for one, would be dismayed if Mourinho walked away at the end of the season.

"Jose was the main reason I came to the club so of course I want him to stay, " he said. "The squad all want Jose to sort out whatever differences he has so we can get back to enjoying each other's company. But ultimately it's results which will help us draw a line under this - there can't be any problems if we start winning."