Chelsea will fight to hold Joe Cole

Joe Cole

After rumours stating the Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole leaving the club after his contract expire in the end of June but according to Blues assistant manager Ray Wilkins, Chelsea will fight to keep the England international.

Cole had indicated that he may leave the Blues with a lot of clubs like Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Arsenal all interested to sign him.

Arsenal and Manchester City are the favourites to sign the Englishman after demanding £100,000 a week and struggling to break into Carlo Ancelotti’s first eleven. Cole is with the England Team preparing for the World Cup opener against the USA and he will not be distracted over his future which will take a while to materialise of moving until the end of the tournament.

Wilkins insist that the Premier League champions still wants to Pen a new deal with the former West Ham United midfielder and he will try to persuade the English star to stay at Stamford bridge.

He said: “We’ve obviously been in dialogue with Joe for months now and it’s pretty evident that Carlo and myself would love Joe to stay but it’s down now to the club to see what we can do.

“We sincerely hope Joe stays with us – he’s a smashing guy and he’s a wonderful footballer so we’ll keep our fingers crossed.”

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