Birmingham City release statement and confirm exit as familiar face is promoted
Birmingham City have confirmed that Ashley Cole has left the club after almost a year at St Andrew's. Former England, Arsenal and Chelsea left-back Cole is departing as he is turning his role within The FA set-up into a permanent arrangement.
Cole joined Blues as part of Wayne Rooney's back-room staff, alongside Pete Shuttleworth and John O'Shea, back in October of last year when Blues moved to appoint Rooney having sacked predecessor John Eustace.
Despite Rooney's sacking in January and the subsequent departures of O'Shea and Shuttleworth, Cole remained at Blues and has since continued working under Tony Mowbray, Gary Rowett and current incumbent Chris Davies. He has, though, continued to work in the England set-up in international breaks, previously with the under 21s and now as part of interim boss Lee Carsley's staff.
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Davies, at his pre-Wrexham press conference on Monday, told BirminghamLive : “I can’t confirm it definitely because we’re in talks still with The FA but it looks like that will happen. There’s nothing concrete on that. In the time I’ve been here he’s been an excellent first team coach and everything else. We will see what direction that takes in the next few days but we obviously wish him well.”
The club have now released a short statement confirming Cole had left and added: "Everyone at Blues wishes Ashley the best of luck for the future." Blues have moved to promote another former left-back, Jonathan Grounds, from within the club's academy and he'll work with the first-team under Davies and alongside fellow coaches Ben Petty and Nathan Gardiner.