Manchester United rule out move to sign Joe Cole
Cole has been on the fringes at both club and international level recently
Manchester United have ruled out a summer move for England international Joe Cole, BBC Sport understands. The 28-year-old midfielder was released by Chelsea earlier this month after falling out of favour with manager Carlo Ancelotti.
Even before his Stamford Bridge exit, Cole had been linked with several other Premier League clubs.
Arsenal and Tottenham are said to be favourites to sign him but United are not expected to be one of the bidders.
Chelsea confirmed Cole's departure when they announced German midfielder Michael Ballack and right-back Juliano Belletti would also be leaving.
And although Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been a long-time admirer of Cole, a senior club source at Old Trafford said he would not be making a summer move to sign him.
Cole began his career at West Ham under Harry Redknapp, who is now manager of Spurs, and who will be able to offer him Champions League football next season should he wish to bring him to White Hart Lane.
Chelsea signed the Londoner for a fee of £6.6m in the summer of 2003 after West Ham were relegated from the Premier League under his captaincy.
Cole, who scored 52 times in 396 appearances for Chelsea, has netted 10 times in 54 matches for England.
He is part of the 23-man squad at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, although he did not feature in the opening two group matches.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8755088.stm[ 本文被Gabriel在24-06-2010 15:52重新編輯 ]
