Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell has revealed the key role Ashley Cole played in his £50 million move to Stamford Bridge and wants to match the former England defender’s career for club and country.
The 23-year-old made his full debut in Tuesday’s Cup third-round defeat at Tottenham as he continues to rebuild his match fitness from a heel injury that ruled him out of the final five games of Leicester City‘s 2019-20 campaign.
“Coming to Chelsea, as well as talking to the manager, a big factor for me was speaking to Ashley Cole when I came here and seeing the career that he had here,” Chilwell said at a news conference on Thursday.
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Cole has been working as an academy coach at Chelsea, returning to the club where he made 229 Premier League appearances and won eight major honours in addition to 107 England caps.
And Chilwell admitted discussions with his fellow left-back — arranged by his agent David Manasseh — helped influence his decision to join Chelsea with Manchester City among several other interested clubs.
“Obviously I wanted to emulate him and still do. To have someone like that who has played for Chelsea, who is English, it was important for me,” he said.
“I spoke to my agent because I was quite keen on getting to meet him so I could get to know him and kind of pick his brains on what he thought of Chelsea as a club, how he reached the success that he reached here. I was quite keen to have that chat to find out stuff like that. I am going to work as hard as I can for however many years to try and emulate what he’s done here.
“He just said: ‘Work hard, I know it sounds pretty cliched but fans here love players who want to work hard and die for the badge. Just put everything into winning for the football club because it is a great club.’ When he first came in here, he wanted to win for the club.”He loved playing for Chelsea and he said if I could take that on board, that wanting to love the club and win for it, then I should have a great career here.”
Chilwell could make his Premier League debut in Saturday’s home game against Crystal Palace.