Ashley Cole has become embroiled in another Twitter row after the Chelsea full-back endorsed a tweet criticising Alan Shearer for his comments on Match of the Day.
Shearer preached the Football Association should ban Cole after he called the governing body a "bunch of twa*s" on Twitter in light of the Independent Regulatory Commission’s judgment in the John Terry racial abuse case being published.
Cole, who has since apologised "unreservedly" for his "heat of the moment" tweet on Friday, will be disciplined by Chelsea and punished by the FA for his rashness but appears to be irritated by Shearer's comments.
The left-back retweeted a message from a follower which read: "Alan Shearer says @TheRealAC3 needs to be banned for comments. I want his opinion on bans for kicking Neil Lennon in the head. #GlassHouses."
This is in reference to when Shearer kicked out at Leicester City's Neil Lennon in 1998 but was not charged by the FA.
Graham Kelly, then the FA's chief executive, claimed in his autobiography Shearer threatened not to play at the 1998 World Cup if he faced a disciplinary process.
Cole, just like his FA-directed tweet, unretweeted the post.
When talk turned to Cole's behaviour on Match of the Day, the usually anodyne Shearer said Cole should be made an example of.
“I think the FA can put a big statement out here by actually not fining him but actually banning him on Friday against San Marino,’’ Shearer told the BBC. “Because we’ve seen players fined £50,000, £60,000, £70,000. That’s not a deterrent to them.
“Stopping them from playing football will be a deterrent. If they do it quickly – which they haven’t done in the case, which has taken 14 months – if they do it in four to five days, I think it puts a big statement out to the rest of the players.’’
“Stopping them from playing football will be a deterrent. If they do it quickly – which they haven’t done in the case, which has taken 14 months – if they do it in four to five days, I think it puts a big statement out to the rest of the players.’’
Cole is two caps short of reaching a century for England and will become only the sixth player to do so if he plays against San Marino and Poland in this week's World Cup qualifiers.
Yet even after Chelsea announced they would censure him for his foul-mouthed outburst last week, he has courted controversy again online.
Blues boss Roberto di Matteo said on Saturday in reference to Cole, "We’ve got a social media policy at the club and there’s going to be a disciplinary process – action – against the tweet."