Ashley Cole - next club betting

After being "tapped up" by Chelsea last January, Ashley Cole was fined £75,000 and the potential of a move in the near future started to look unlikely. However, it has been reported that the Premiership champions are close to prizing the twenty-five-year-old from Arsenal for £16million, and expect a deal to be completed by the end of this month. Blue Square go 2/7 that Cole will be a Chelsea player on September 1, and 4/1 that he will still be at Highbury. If these prices are a guide, Cole's move to Stamford Bridge would appear to be a formality. According to reports in the Daily Star, Cole confided in friends at his recent wedding to Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy that he hopes to be a Blues player pretty soon. The same newspaper report that Arsene Wenger is likely to counter Cole's move by luring Lilian Thuram, who excelled for France during the recent World Cup Finals, from Juventus, who were relegated from Serie A following the Italian match-fixing scandal. Wenger is in need of defensive reinforcements with Philippe Senderos set to be on the sidelines for a further two months following a shoulder injury which he picked up in Germany, while the rumour mill continues to link Sol Campbell with a move away from north London.