This article has an estimated read time of 12 minutes

The rain is hammering down on the windows at Derby County’s training ground when Ashley Cole arrives, in soaking-wet training gear and with the broadest of grins. “Proper football weather,” he laughs, water dripping off his shorts.

A soggy afternoon in the east Midlands, three days out from a Championship play-off semi-final, seems an inauspicious setting for Cole, with his three Premier League titles, seven FA Cups, one Champions League and 107 England caps. Yet he could not seem happier.

Smiling suits him. For over a decade he was widely considered one of the best left-backs in the world but, at the same time, the poster boy for all that was wrong with the Premier League for certain sections of supporters and the media. Relentless, and often unfair, accusations of greed and surliness forced Cole into his bunker, closing him off to the outside world.

This is his first sit-down interview with a British newspaper for 14 years, but over the course of more than half-an-hour, he is open, chatty and generous - and as far removed from his flash reputation as is possible.

So, has Ashley Cole mellowed? “I’d say I’ve grown up," he replies, with another smile. "I was a young, angry kid at the time and now I’ve grown up and understand the things I did is life, it happens.