With a backpack slung over his shoulders, Ashley Cole slipped out of the visitors’ dressing room at the Etihad on Monday evening and clambered aboard Chelsea’s team bus.
He looked and sounded fine, checking his walk to flick his head and say ‘all right’ when he recognised a sympathetic face in the corridor.
He wasn’t miserable or mardy, even after watching Chelsea’s stunning 1-0 victory over Manchester City in its entirety from the substitutes’ bench.
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Bit-part player: Ashley Cole warms up against Manchester City but didn't make it off the Chelsea bench
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Onlooker: Cole has spent more time than he'd like on the sidelines this season under Mourinho
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Contrast: Cole lifting the Europa League and celebrating another FA Cup win back when he was a major player
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But with his worldly footballing possessions crammed in to that rucksack it looked and felt as though he was ready to go. Cole’s work at Chelsea is done.
Even as the game progressed at the Etihad, Jose Mourinho’s team were evolving, taking shape and preparing for a future without him.
Cesar Azpilicueta, the right-footed left back, starts all the big games for Mourinho: Arsenal (twice), Liverpool, Manchester United and the latest, Manchester City.
At 24, Azpilicueta’s career is in front of him and he has seized this chance. He really looks the part.
Cole has had a fine career at Chelsea, winning four FA Cups, the Champions League, the Europa League and the Barclays Premier League title under Carlo Ancelotti in 2010.
A first-class defender is now second choice for one of the biggest clubs in Europe. At some point it must come to a natural conclusion.
If he leaves Chelsea this summer, when the contract he signed last January expires, at least he can make a dignified exit.
It wasn’t that long ago, after Arsenal’s 0-0 draw with Chelsea on December 23, that Arsene Wenger admitted he would take him back.
Asked whether he would be prepared to re-sign a man who forced through a move to Chelsea in 2006, Wenger replied: ‘If I needed a left back, yes.’
Don’t rule anything out in this game.
That fixture was shortly after Mourinho voiced his displeasure when Cole had been pictured partying with Arsenal’s players just before Christmas. It wasn’t a crime but it wasn’t a smart move.
Everyone knows the full back likes a night out and, at 33, no-one is about to stop him heading into London’s fleshpots when he gets the chance.
The incidentals, such as Cole’s smoking habit, are another issue for Chelsea’s manager: Mourinho detests it.
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Is he Gunner go back? Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admits he would have Cole in his team again
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Cash out: Arsenal fans have not liked 'Cashley' Cole since his move to Chelsea in 2006, which Gunners supporters say was financially motivated
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Cup runneth: Cole with the Gunners' FA Cup and Premier League trophies in 2002
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Did it again: Chelsea clinch the 2010 Premier League after an 8-0 win over Wigan
He is one of three top players who will be out of contract at Chelsea in the summer and it feels as though England’s first-choice left back is the most vulnerable.
Lampard will get one more contract out of Chelsea and so will the captain John Terry.
Even if Cole was offered another year, there is little reason to take it, other than for financial reasons.
It will be no good to have Cole is hanging around the place if he isn’t going to be in the team Mourinho is building to win the title next season.
The names and the stature of the players mean nothing to Mourinho, which is one of the coach’s defining characteristics.
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Hail Cesar: Azpilicueta (left) is Jose Mourinho's choice for the big games, even though he is really a right back
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Full of hope: Young Arsenal fan Cole holds the First Division trophy and strolling before Chelsea's win over City
All that counts if the thirst for knowledge and the hunger to become better players.
Somewhere, Cole still has much to offer and yet he will not be happy standing around at the training ground with the mannequins as Mourinho works with his first-choice players.
Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Manchester City on October 27 was the biggest game Cole has started this season.
Other than that, he’s pretty much sub.
These days he his more likely to get games against mid-ranking Premier League opposition such as Southampton (January 1), Hull City (January 11) and Stoke City in the FA Cup (January 26).
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Last big match: Cole has not featured in a crunch game since facing City at Stamford Bridge in October
After that 1-0 FA Cup victory over Stoke, he was involved in an enlightening exchange on Twitter.
A Chelsea fan, @glyn1980, tweeted: ‘Well played today Ash, we look much better with you in the back 4. #fact. @TheRealAC3.’
Cole replied: ‘cheers mate just don’t get used to it’.
In a couple of weeks’ time he will be named in Roy Hodgson’s squad for England’s first friendly of the year against Denmark at Wembley.
It is in that game when he will discover whether he remains the country’s first-choice left back ahead of the World Cup in Brazil this summer.
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Left back in the dressing room? Cole could be displaced in the England team by Leighton Baines (right)
There is a possibility that he has officially slipped behind Everton defender Leighton Baines after a frustrating season on the sidelines at Stamford Bridge.
That will not sit easily with Cole, a man who used to show his mates in the crowd at Old Trafford a pretend pocket when he was marking Cristiano Ronaldo.
Those were the days when Cole, along with Bayern Munich’s Philipp Lahm, were the two best left backs in world football.
Suddenly, that’s all beginning to feel like a long time ago.
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In his pocket: Cole used to take pride in the fact he would get the better of Cristiano Ronaldo (right)
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