The Supplement panel debated the pressures placed on Ashley Cole by the success of his wife.
Cole misdemeanours put him in spotlight again
Is there more pressure on Ashley Cole because of the success of his pop star wife?
That was the question posed on
The Sunday Supplement this week after the Chelsea and England full-back was arrested and fined on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Cole later apologised for using "inappropriate" language towards police officers - an incident which occurred while his wife, Girls Aloud singer Cheryl, was in the middle of a high-profile charity mountain climb.
Shaun Custis of
The Sun suggested on
The Sunday Supplement that Cheryl's accession to the level of 'national treasure' has increased the pressure on Ashley - and he should adjust his behaviour accordingly.
He said: "What Ashley does wrong is magnified 20 times because she is loved by the nation.
"She is a national treasure who is adored; my kids love watching her on the telly - so the headlines are bigger when Ashley does something wrong.
"He's got to get that into his head. He's got to understand that even the smallest misdemeanours are going to be magnified more because of her.
"You can't miss the contrast that she was raising hundreds of thousands for charity by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, while he was doing what he was doing."
Irrelevant
However, Sam Wallace of the Independent disagreed, suggesting that the profile of an international footballer's wife is completely irrelevant when judging the behaviour of the footballer.
"I'm not really interested in what his wife might be doing," Wallace argued.
"I'm a football reporter and I'm interested in Ashley Cole and what he does.
"I know there's a lot of stuff about his private life that people tend to get upset about, but that doesn't bother me. I'm not interested in that.
"When I watch him and he makes a mistake I don't think: 'Ooh Cheryl wouldn't be happy with that.' I just don't care."
Embarrassing
However, Wallace did insist that Cole's actions were embarrassing and he should have learned to accept his responsibilities as a high-profile footballer by now.
"He's messed up, there's no two ways about it," he said.
"It's not the biggest crime in the world, he's had a few drinks and he's said something daft to a police officer. But let's be clear about this, he's messed up.
"There were two other players out that night and they didn't get drunk and swear at a police officer.
"There's an interesting stat that he's had more official apologies than goals at Chelsea. There was an official apology to Mike Riley on the club's website last season and another issued by the press office this week - and he's scored one goal against West Ham last March.
"It's 2-1 to the apologies at the moment!
"Joking aside, I don't know Ashley Cole or pretend to know what his motivations are, but that is embarrassing. It's a small thing, it's not the biggest crime in the world, but he shouldn't have done it.
"If a 28-year-old man doesn't know that in his position you can't do that then I don't think there's a lot of hope."
