Ashley Cole tweets unsettling meme of him stalking ex-wife Cheryl Cole and new husband Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini

The footballer can be seen unsettlingly lingering in the background of the shot through the window, as the newly-wed couple toast their happiness

Ashley Cole’s cad credentials were taken up a gear when he retweeted a fan meme of him photobombing his ex-wife Cheryl and her new husband Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini.

The footballer can be seen unsettlingly lingering in the background of the shot through the window, as the newly-wed couple toast their happiness in the X Factor judge's plush Hertfordshire mansion.

Ashley and Cheryl divorced in 2010 after the sports star admitted to a string of infidelities. That’s four years ago, for those that need some mathematical assistance to put this into context.

Since then, she’s re-married a French events promoter after dating him for just three months. He’s been kicking a spherical object around a field.

And since Christmas, Ashley has tweeted about his former spouse more than once. The most memorable being this quip about the former Mrs C being giftwrapped and stuck under his tree at Christmas:

So far, so stalkerish.

But there is a lighter side to this tale that makes it all slightly less creepy.

The meme actually evolved from a snap posted by Ashley’s new football club, AS Roma. In it, he can be seen awkwardly lingering to the left of the photograph, as his teammates huddle in formation. It led some followers on Twitter to question whether the former Chelsea star had actually managed to make any friends at his new Italian home.

The image quickly went viral, and fans took to editing him awkwardly lingering in a variety of scenarios – the most popular of which was the above shot.

Showing he does have a sense of humour nestled somewhere underneath those prominent brows, he laughed off the spoof shot, retweeted it and tweeted back at one user, "ur a fool I'll give u this as your day, I'm comin 4u[sic]", followed by lots of ‘crying with laughter’ emoticons and a single blushing embarrassed one.

Other Ashley memes included him sneaking into Ellen DeGeneres’ famous Oscars selfie, tentatively swimming with dolphins and sort of hanging around a golf course with Tiger Woods.