That wasn't the only controversy to surround Jose Mourinho in 2005. That same year, he was found guilty of tapping up Ashley Cole, then of Arsenal. Chelsea, Mourinho and Cole were all found guilty of secretly meeting at a London restaurant without the Gunners' prior permission. As punishment, they were each all handed record fines after the Premier League conducted a tapping up probe. The Blues were hammered with a £300,000 fine and three-point deduction, which was suspended; Cole a £100,000 fine and Mourinho ordered to pay £200,000 - reduced on appeal in August 2005 to £75,000. Chelsea's chief executive Peter Kenyon, Mourinho, Cole and his agents Pini Zahavi and Jonathan Barnett were alleged to have been present at the meeting. The scandal resulted in Cole's controversial move from Arsenal to Stamford Bridge in 2006 after the defender attacked his former manager Arsene Wenger in his autobiography for "feeding him to the sharks" in the aftermath of the tapping up storm. Cole stayed at Chelsea until this summer, before ending his eight-year association with the club to join Roma.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
