With Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole set to leave Stamford Bridge this summer, we analyse the eight contract offers that the 33-year-old is reportedly currently weighing up for next season …
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1) Liverpool
Pros: The Reds can offer him Uefa Champions League football next season.
Cons: He would never be forgiven for joining the west London club’s arch rivals.
2) Manchester United
Pros: Signing for the biggest club in the Premier League, it not the world
Cons: The Red Devils finished seventh in the table last time around and so cannot offer the left back Uefa Champions League football next season.
3) Manchester City
Pros: Moving to the current Premier League champions whose massive wealth would also ensure the Englishman a bumper contract and signing-on fee no doubt.
Cons: There is already stiff competition in the left-back role at Eastlands in the form of both France international Gael Clichy and Serbia international Aleksandar Kolarov.
4) Arsenal
Pros: Knows the north London club and its head coach Arsene Wenger well after starting out is career with the Gunners before then moving across the capital to Stamford Bridge.
Cons: The full back is loathed at the Emirates now after his controversial decision to join the north Londoners’ arch rivals back in 2006.
5) Paris Saint-Germain
Pros: He would be signing for one of Europe’s most progressive clubs at an exciting time in their history, while he would also be handsomely rewarded in the French capital.
Cons: Ligue 1 is one of the most uncompetitive and least-followed of all the top-five leagues on the Continent.
6) AS Monaco
Pros: Life in Monte Carlo on the South Coast of France would most definitely appeal to Cole, as would the tax-free status afforded footballers in the Principality.
Cons: Last season’s Ligue 1 runners-up play in front of a half-empty stadium at the Stade Louis II.
7) Real Madrid
Pros: The defender would get the chance to once again team up with his former manager Carlo Ancelotti in the Spanish capital under who the ex-England international played perhaps the best football of his entire Blues career at Stamford Bridge.
Cons: Cole would be far from guaranteed a first-team spot at the Santiago Bernabeu what with both Brazil international Marcelo and Portugal international Fabio Coentrao most likely blocking his path to the Los Blancos starting lineup.
8) Inter Milan
Pros: He would definitely get a game with the struggling Serie A giants at left back next season.
Cons: Does Cole really want to play out the final few years of his illustrious and trophy-laden career languishing in mid-table obscurity at San Siro?