THE criminal who attempted to rob former Arsenal stars Mesut Ozil and Sead Kolasinac has brazenly opened up about the altercation.
In July 2019, the Arsenal duo were targeted by two men on a moped in Childs Hill, London.
They attempted to steal a watch before going for Ozil‘s car, but Kolasinac heroically jumped out of the vehicle to fight them off.
Ashley Smith and his accomplice, Jordan Northover, were both jailed four months later, with the former receiving a 10-year sentence.
He was released earlier this year and disclosed the story from his perspective in a tell-all interview.
Smith, nicknamed ‘Ashman’, told the BlueTick podcast: “I was on the run. I was wanted on recall. I had an argument with my mum and I cut my tag off.
“My co-de (co-defendant) rang me and was like, ‘I’m on the run too, let’s roll.’ So I’m like, ‘come meet me.’
“We jumped on the bike, went out, done whatever we was doing and made about… Dumb change, innit, it was young Ps.
“I’m saying park up, he’s saying no, stay out for another half hour.
“We’re driving and I see my man Ozil and Kolasinac in the G Wagon. Pulled up, yeah my co-de tried to get it, it went left. We missed out on the belly that day.
“But you win some, you lose some, you know.
“I don’t even want to think about the figures to be honest with you. £150k minimum, easy.”
Asked if it would’ve been the biggest move he’d ever done, ‘Ashman’ shamelessly responded: “Yeah. I’ve had a few big ones, I’ve had a few little ones. It’s the luck of the draw, you don’t know what you’re going to get.”
He went on to say: “It weren’t even a knife. It was a knitting needle. But where we’d seen it, we weren’t even thinking. It was the belly. We got too hungry. It wasn’t like we planned it.”
In response to a question about what the knitting needle was for, he said: “That’s to get something. To get keys, to hook the keys innit.”
“When I pulled up next to him, the guy was a lump,” he added. “My co-de, he’s a savage. But on that day, my man was on, Sead was on.”
Both “furious”, the perpetrators fled the scene but were later found.
Smith was initially handed a 15-year prison sentence for attempted robbery, but his guilty plea reduced it to 10 years.
After an appeal, he got it reduced again to a six-do-three – meaning a six-year custodial sentence followed by a three-year extended license period.
However, he was then charged with a different burglary while in possession of firearms, taking his total sentence back up to nine years.
Smith went on to serve four years and 10 months in prison. He was released in May this year.
“This is the longest I’ve been out,” he said.
Arsenal fans were left furious after seeing how brazen ‘Ashman’ was during the interview on social media.
One person commented: “Sead Kolasinac looked at you and laughed. This guy just a full on mug.”
Another wrote: “Made to look a fool by footballers .”
A third said: “Kolasinac didn’t even flinch, this guy should be embarrassed to even show his face!”
While a fourth added: “Is he not embarrassed to show his face?”
Ozil left Arsenal as a free agent in 2021. Meanwhile, Kolasinac now plays for Atalanta in Serie A.
