For Argyll

Tobermory seems destined for celebrity. It has just seen the dwindling of the long and massive tourist boost with the popularity of the BBC children’s TV series, Balamory based on the brightly coloured port on the Isle of Mull. Now it is having a shot at winning the X-factor. Successful competition judge, Cheryl Cole and her husband, footballer, Ashley Cole, the Chelsea and England defender, are reported as preparing to make a second bid on a major property in the town after an earlier bid was rejected.

The property in question is a five bedroomed Victorian villa with a private walled garden and wonderful views across the Sound of Mull to the empty and beautiful Ardnamurchan peninsula.

Ashley Cole was found guilty by the FA in a ‘tapping-up’ case after he and his agent were discovered in secret talks with Chelsea in January 2005, while he was still an Arsenal player. He was fined £100,000 which, on appeal, was reduced to £75,000 with Cole accusing Arsenal of ‘feeding him to the sharks’ in the affair.

Although Cole signed a one-year contract extension with Arsenal in the summer of 2005, relations with Arsenal were obviously strained and he went to Chelsea - for £5 million, in August 2006.

Arsenal fans did not forgive him for his ‘treachery’, seeing him as moving to Chelsea for the money. Wittily labelling him ‘Cashley Cole’,  they were well prepared for the next meeting of their club with Chelsea in the 2006-2007 season and, in force, waved fake £20 notes at Cole on his appearance.

Tobermory will welcome the wealthy Coles if they are lucky enough to get to live there. Mulleach singer-songwriter, Colin MacIntyre, feels that they’ll find it hard to go unrecognised in this small place but that people will be delighted to have them around. They might even be visited by Simon Cowall and by Jose Mourinho, the ’special one’ who brought (or bought) Ashley Cole to Chelsea.