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It has been a long journey for Ashley Cole, but also for his wife, Sharon Canu. It took seven years for Cole to get his first job as a head coach, with Cesena in Italy, having retired from playing. During that time, Sharon had to endure many dinner table tactical briefings with salt and pepper shakers. The pair met a decade ago while Cole was playing for Roma – Canu is from Italy – and that period clearly left a lasting mark beyond the pitch. “I bored her a lot,” Cole says, smiling. Now that he has a dugout of his own, Sharon may finally get the seasoning back.
“It was always in our plans to live in Italy because we love the food and the calmness of the country,” Cole says. “She [Canu] told me the fans here are passionate about their team and their city. I had to embrace that, understand what makes them tick, so we can represent them properly.”
Cole’s first managerial role has come at a club who sit ninth in Italy’s second division and are scrapping for a playoff place. It is a long way from winning Premier League and Champions League titles with Chelsea. Yet he speaks with the quiet conviction of someone who has found exactly where he needs to be.
“I really appreciate the opportunity I’ve been given,” the 45-year-old says. “While it is true this is my first head coaching role, the body of work I’ve done over my seven years on the grass [as a coach] means there is nothing more I could do to prepare. The hours I’ve put in, the experiences I’ve had, and the managers and coaches I’ve worked under have guided me to a place where I feel ready and that I should be a head coach. I am definitely thankful to Cesena for the opportunity, but I have more than enough experience.”
Cesena is a working-class city of fewer than 100,000 people, tucked into Emilia-Romagna, Italy’s food valley. The locals are fiercely proud of their club’s rich heritage: they enjoyed a golden era in the mid-1970s, qualifying for the Uefa Cup, and have spent 13 seasons in Serie A overall. Emanuele Giaccherini, Sebastiano Rossi, Massimo Ambrosini and Vincenzo Iaquinta are just a few of the prominent names to have represented the black and white of Cavalluccio over the last three decades.
Cole lined up against Cesena for Roma during their most recent Serie A season, 2014-15. Now, he is the man tasked with reviving their fortunes, and was approached to do so by Mike Melby, one of the club’s American co-owners. “They knew I was looking for a head coach role,” Cole says. “The fans weren’t happy with the style of play and the owners wanted something different: an exciting, energetic team that plays on the front foot. They made the decision to sack the manager [Michele Mignani], and I came in to continue the project.”
Results have so far been mixed. The former England left-back, who was appointed in mid-March, lost his first game in charge but then came a memorable 3-1 win against fellow playoff contenders Catanzaro that sent the home crowd into raptures. “When I arrived the team hadn’t won in six or seven games. Confidence was low,” Cole says.
“If I did the same thing as the previous manager, it wouldn’t work. I want this team to reflect the fans. They are humble, hard-working people who work every day to afford a ticket. We need to give them everything on the pitch to reflect that work ethic.”
Asked about his football philosophy while sitting in the stands of Cesena’s Stadio Dino Manuzzi, Cole looks up, seemingly searching for a profound answer. Eventually he replies: “To win games. To do that, we’re implementing a tactical shift. Possession-based, but attacking. Playing between the lines, playing fast. I want intensity without the ball, staying in the opposition’s half, sustaining attacks. I don’t want wingers defending; that’s not their job. I want them on the ball in front of the goal.”
Does Cole worry about the cynical, defensive reality of Serie B? “We play against a lot of teams with low blocks, 10 players behind the ball, you need patience,” he says. “But control of the ball gives us more opportunities to attack. If you just play long, it’s 50-50 in the air, the team gets stretched, and you can’t press effectively.”
In the dressing room and on the training pitch, Cole operates with a mix of English and Italian. “Sto migliorando il mio Italiano [I’m improving my Italian],” he offers, before adding: “Sono timido [I’m shy].”
“There are moments where I address the team in Italian and moments where I vent frustration in English. It’s a mix,” Cole says. “Some players actually ask me to speak English because they want to learn it. I had the same issue at Roma; I’d try to speak Italian and they’d say: ‘No, speak English.’
“Football is an easy language because you can show things with passion. We also have a staff member, Nicola Capellini, who came from the Primavera [youth team]. He’s an ex-player who knows the club’s ethos and knows the players in and out. He is the bridge between English and Italian, going between the two languages to keep the message clear.”
The players call him “Mister”, the traditional Italian honorific for a manager. Cole tells them they don’t have to, but he respects the custom. “I want them to see I’m human and not a monster,” says Cole. “Building that connection in a short time has created real trust. The players have to trust what I’m asking them to do.”
Cole is emphatic that he will not coach anyone to be a replica of himself. “Never. I don’t coach a left-back to play exactly how I played because we are different,” he says. “We have different physical and mental attributes. I might give pointers, but I don’t expect a player like Gianluca Frabotta, who is tall and has a different style, to do exactly what I did. I was faster over the first five yards.
“It’s the same with midfielders: I’m not coaching them to be Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard. I coach them how to be [Dimitri] Bisoli. I look at how he moves with his attributes and how he can be efficient with his box-to-box engine. It’s about adapting my style to the tools I have.”
Does Cole ever get frustrated when a player cannot execute a movement that was instinctive to him, one of the finest full-backs of his generation? “Never,” he says firmly. “We have different physical and mental attributes. It’s about adapting my approach to the person in front of me.”
Cole is forthright about the state of Italian youth football. “England has one of the best loan systems in the world because our leagues offer different styles,” he says. “In Italy the league is very defensive, so players often only develop one aspect: defending. It’s hard to develop technical players if they never touch the ball because the team plays 50-yard long balls. At the youth level it shouldn’t be about winning; it should be about technical development. You don’t see the ‘Insignes’; the small, technical players in the pocket.”
'I’ve been lucky to play under top managers'
ShowAshley Cole on...
José Mourinho: Very diligent in his coaching, planning, and team setup.
Arsène Wenger: He allowed freedom. I made many mistakes as a young player, but he trusted me. I learned from these mistakes – for example, I’d be too aggressive and get "one-two'd"; I learned to adjust my positioning, like getting closer to protect my centre-back. I learned you can't keep making the same mistakes.
Carlo Ancelotti: He treated the person before the player. He made you feel
invincible and cared about your life outside football - how the kids and family were.
Rafa Benítez Even as an experienced player, I learned positional effectiveness from him, like where to be as a left-back when the ball is on the other side.
Cole’s overriding ambition is to take Cesena back to Serie A and he is sure that will happen under his watch. “100%,” he says without hesitation. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve seen a dramatic change in the players’ mentality. They’ve embraced change and want to be better. I’m not saying it will happen this season, but the idea going forward is that we need to be in Serie A.”
And what about England’s chances at this summer’s World Cup? “The talent is unbelievable,” says the man who earned 107 caps for his country. “The challenge is handling the pressure and expectation. As a player we failed in that regard, and with the talent we had that is a regret of mine. The current squad has the character and belief to win it. It will be hard against countries like Brazil, Spain and Argentina, but England should be right there competing at the top.” Which is exactly what he intends to do with Cesena.
