Wenger: Cole is the Premier League's best left-back ever

Arsene Wenger has hailed 2024 Hall of Fame inductee Ashley Cole as the best left-back the Premier League has ever seen.

Cole has been revealed as the first of three legends to enter the Hall of Fame for 2024, with fans invited to choose the next two when a shortlist of 15 players is revealed later today.

Former Arsenal and Chelsea left-back says he is privileged to join legends like Shearer and Henry in the home of the greats

Few people know the impact on the Premier League of Cole better than Wenger, who himself was inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside Sir Alex Ferguson last year.

Wenger managed Cole at Arsenal, where an up-and-coming teenager would grow into a three-time Premier League champion over the course of an incredible 15-year career in the competition.

"I arrived in 1996, and Ashley Cole was 16 years old," said Wenger. "Pat Rice was the coach of the youth team before I arrived, and he said, 'He has character. He's a fighter. Have an eye on him.'

"One of the strengths of Ashley is his character, his confidence in himself. He's quiet, so he doesn't come into your office and say, 'Why do I not play?' He just believes in his strengths. He has no inhibition.

"When he played his first game, you feel straightaway this guy is made to be at this level. You think straightaway, 'I will have a problem to take him out again.' That's what you want from players. He had that."

Former Arsenal and Chelsea star reflects on his career and reveals pride at being inducted into the Hall of Fame

Cole won two Premier League titles with Arsenal and was a pivotal part of the 2003/04 "Invincibles" team that went through the entire season unbeaten, the only modern team in England to do so.

But he left the club in 2006 to join London rivals