Arsene Wenger has castigated Chelsea as "naive and arrogant" for meeting Arsenal's Ashley Cole at London's Royal Park Hotel. "I don't know how they thought they could get away with doing it in a hotel in the centre of London," he said.
"They might as well have arranged the meeting on a roundabout on the M25. At least then everyone would know exactly what happened."
Cole is yet to give his evidence to the Premier League inquiry into the meeting but Wenger has already heard enough to believe Chelsea should face stringent punitive measures. Interestingly, however, he has chosen to forgive his own player, despite evidence that the England defender was instrumental in arranging the talks at the hotel in Lancaster Gate with Chelsea's manager Jose Mourinho, the chief executive Peter Kenyon and the agent Pini Zahavi.
"When the story first broke I couldn't believe it was true because I could never imagine the people at Chelsea could be so naive and arrogant.
"It's not as if this is Real Madrid trying to tap up one of our players. They (Chelsea) are our neighbours and we live in the same city, where people know each other. It is not complicated for them to phone a player to ask what is happening. So I find the whole process, how it was organised, to be just amazing."
Cole's agent Jonathan Barnett yesterday insisted that he had been misquoted in previously denying he and Cole had met Peter Kenyon and Jose Mourinho.
On Friday, Chelsea's evidence to the Premier League inquiry confirmed for the first time that the meeting had taken place but said it was at the instigation of Cole and Barnett.
Barnett has described that as "ludicrous", while also insisting that he has been misquoted in denials that the meeting ever took place. "I never denied it," Barnett said yesterday in recalling his reaction to journalists when he was informed of the News of the World's story in January revealing the meeting. "All I said was, 'Leave me alone with all this rubbish. I've got better things to do at this time on a Saturday night.'"
Barnett has told friends that he was surprised any Chelsea officials were present at the meeting; rather that it was intended to be only for him, Cole and Pini Zahavi to be present with a view to gauging foreign clubs' interest in the England left-back.
