'I regret that'- Former Arsenal chief issues apology to Ashley Cole for his controversial move to Chelsea

Ashley Cole was previously touted as one of the greatest players in his own right ever to emerge from the English footballing circuit. Moving up from Arsenal's academy, Cole was always backed to captain the Emirates Stadium-based outfit.

However, a contract dispute with the Gunners forced Cole to seek refuge elsewhere, which interestingly happened to be their neighbouring rivals, Chelsea.

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During a recent interaction with talkSPORT, former Arsenal chief David Dein offered fans some insight into the situation before admitting that he regretted the way things turned out with cole and issuing an apology for the same.

"We should never have lost him in my opinion," he told talkSPORT of Cole. "His contract came up for re-negotiation and we didn't offer him the right sort of money, meanwhile, Chelsea did..."

"That was the end of that and it really was a great shame because Ashley was home-grown, an Arsenal boy, and I regret that we didn't do enough at the time to keep him at the club.

"It was also at a time where we were talking about building the stadium and finances, so tensions were raging about how we were going to finance the stadium and we were watching every penny.

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"We didn't go enough to keep him, and I regret that with hindsight. Ashley, if you're listening, I'm sorry," asserted Dein.

Cole, while describing his exit from Arsenal in his book, had previously admitted that he had been fed to the sharks by the very club that he had served so loyally from his boyhood days.