Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood has revealed that defender Ashley Cole wanted his salary to be tripled during recent contract discussions with the club’s officials.
Hill-Wood also expressed fears that the rise in "player power" since the Bosman ruling was a major threat to the stability of clubs.
"If you take someone like Ashley Cole, he has another two years to go [on his existing contract]," Hill-Wood told the Evening Standard newspaper.
"He wanted something like three times what we are paying him. We said we can’t do that."
Cole, thought to be on wages of £27,000 a week, and his agent Jonathan Barrett have been involved in negotiations with
Arsenal.
The
Gunners are understood to have rejected an initial demand of about £70,000 a week for Cole and put forward a "final offer" of £55,000 to the player. Cole is reported to have turned this down.
He was also recently involved in a two-day hearing into the "tapping up" affair with
Chelsea, and is accused of approaching
Chelsea without
Arsenal's permission while under contract to the
Gunners.
The Blues, manager Jose Mourinho and chief executive Peter Kenyon have been charged with approaching Cole.
Hill-Wood added: "We have no control over the players now, they control us. "The Bosman system has meant that the power is really in the hands of the players and their agents now. You can’t stop players leaving.
"Talks are still going on with Ashley Cole, as they are with Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Freddie Ljungberg.
"I want to make it clear none of them have been a problem to us, none at all. And they all have two years left.
"Because of that, we have to re-negotiate now. But with Bosman, we haven’t got any cards to play if they say they don’t want to sign a new contract."
Meanwhile, manager Arsene Wenger has said he believes the Cole affair undermined
Arsenal’s season, while
Chelsea have escaped without any ill-effects.
Wenger told BBC Radio Five Live: "Damage has been done to
Arsenal. What happened has influenced our season but it didn’t influence
Chelsea and we have done nothing wrong."
A two-day inquiry into the meeting between Cole and
Chelsea - which allegedly was held at a London hotel in January - ended on Wednesday.
The independent commission will now consider its verdict and announce its decision on 1 June.
Wenger believes that the hearing - and any subsequent punishment - have come too late to have any effect on
Chelsea.
He said: "I don’t think they will be harshly punished, which should have been done a long time ago. A harsh punishment is first of all a quick punishment
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