There has been a few rumoured targets flying around the press recently that could put the future of a certain Chelsea veteran under threat as question marks have been raised over his form.
It’s been claimed in the last week that Chelsea may have an interest in the likes of Davide Santon and Philipp Lahm, and although it seems that a deal isn’t on the cards for either it would be a concern for Ashley Cole if the club were seeking to replaces him, especially as his current deals runs until the end of the season and isn’t putting in the performances to justify his lucrative wages currently.
At 32 Cole can still do a job on the football pitch but nowhere near as well as he could during his pomp and keeping him beyond this season on his current wages would be bad business. I think Chelsea got the best years out of Cole and definitely got the better end of the part-exchange deal with Arsenal when William Gallas went the other way, even though many critics at the time accused the West Londoners of making a blunder.
As for the the aforementioned targets, I think it’d be unlikely that Lahm will leave Bayern Munich and despite working with Jose Mourinho before at Inter Milan it seems as though it wouldn’t be enough to convince Santon of leaving Newcastle United just yet, but Ricardo Rodriguez has been mooted as a potential Cole replacement before and probably represents a slightly more realistic option whilst 18-year-old Chelsea fan Luke Shaw, currently at Southampton, has been championed as the best long-term choice and has the added bonus of being home-grown.
Some of the transfer rumours flying around are silly, as per usual, but I do think Cole needs to do a lot more than he is doing if he wants to keep his starting place and extend his stay at Stamford Bridge beyond the end of the season.
