Cole should be gone this week 1 August, 2006

A$hl£¥ ¢ol€ (sorry about that, I couldn’t resist) is back from honeymoon and decided to turn up for training. He went to the London Colney training centre where he met David Dein and apparently had an argument with him and then stormed out only an hour after he arrived claiming he was ill. It looks as if a deal will be done this week but there’s talk of a possible offer from Real Madrid, if Madrid were to offer £18m and Chelsea £30m, I would rather lose the extra money and ship him off to Spain to be honest. Arsene is growing tired of the speculation but had this to say:

“I know he was only at the training ground for one hour yesterday because he told somebody he was sick. It is frustrating to still be talking about one player who is not with us in Austria when we have 25 who are preparing for the season. If Ashley is going to be sold he will be informed and if he is staying he will be informed about that as well. He is still under contract and no one else will decide what he does.”

Strong word from Wenger but he’s right, Cole should be out in Austria training ahead of the new season but he thinks he’s too good for that. He thinks he is bigger than the club and the sooner he’s gone the better, we proved last season we can cope without him, he played only a handful of games but Flamini did well there and Clichy is still young and will get better. I go away on Friday so hopefully something is sorted before then.

We have been rumoured with a possible move for William Gallas with Cole on the move, he was offered a new 5 year deal by the Russians but Gallas hasn’t decided on it yet which possibly is a sign he wants out, also he didn’t turn up for Chelsea’s pre-season tour in America; it’s more likely that he’ll be off to Madrid but if he was interested in a move across London I’m sure he’d be welcomed here as a high profile replacement for Cole.

Arsenal have taken one of the top players from the World Cup on trial, Ghana’s Shilla Illiasu who was a rock for them and played all of their games in the competition. I’d like to see us sign the 23 year old, we could do with one more defender, if he does impress Wenger the fee is expected to be about £500,000.

Thierry Henry who scored against Ajax in the first game at Ashburton Grove could miss the very start of the season as Wenger doesn’t think he’s fully fit yet. Henry could be set to miss the first leg of our Champions League qualifier against Dinamo Zagreb or Ekranas who play the second leg of their tie tomorrow at Zagreb with the home side up 4-1 from the first leg. Wenger also said that Abou Diaby is making good progress in him recovery from that terrible injury against Sunderland in April. This is some great news and it’s reported that he might be back as early as November, Song might have had a good game against SV Matterberg but I’d rather have Diaby playing any day.

The only other piece of news that caught my eye was a possible move for Patrick Vieira to Man U! Please, please don’t Paddy. However, a more reliable site says that a deal has been done between Inter Milan and Juve for Vieira. Phew.

Right, that’s your lot for today. It’s my driving test this afternoon, wish me luck. Ciao