Ancelotti keen for Cole to secure new Chelsea deal

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti wants England winger Joe Cole to become the latest Blues star to commit his long-term future to the Premier League leaders.

Ancelotti’s club are desperate to get as many of their top players as possible to agree new deals in the aftermath’s FIFA’s transfer ban, which prevents them from making any signings in the next two windows.

The west Londoners are appealing against the ban but are concentrating on tieing up senior members of Ancelotti’s squad in case the verdict goes against them.

Alex and Salomon Kalou put pen to paper this week, joining John Terry, Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba and Michael Mancienne in committing themselves to the club.

Cole, who is out of contract next year and has been linked with Tottenham, is next in line for an extended deal and Ancelotti said on Friday: “We want to keep Joe Cole because he’s in the same situation as Alex and Kalou.

“They signed new contracts because they are good young players and we want to keep them in our squad.

“We want to maintain the squad because that will ensure it stays very competitive. We need these players for the future.

“They are young but are also experienced because they have played a lot of important games.

“The fact Alex and Kalou want to stay is a good sign for the club. Our aim is to maintain the squad and maybe change one or two players at the end of the season.”

Chelsea were found guilty by FIFA of inducing teenager Gael Kakuta to breach his contract with Lens two years ago, resulting in their transfer ban.

But they are confident the punishment will reduced or overturned when their appeal is heard by the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“We hope the appeal will be successful but we’ll have to wait for the decision of FIFA,” Ancelotti said.

“All we can think about is the next game. It’s important to wait and let the decision be made.”

Chelsea could extend their lead at the Premier League to five points with a victory at Aston Villa in Saturday’s early kick-off.

A 2-0 win over title rivals Liverpool two weeks ago restored confidence dented by Chelsea’s 3-1 defeat at Wigan and Ancelotti, who will be without injured midfielder Michael Ballack, expects his team to produce a more dominant away performance at Villa Park.

“We want to play like we did in the game against Liverpool, not Wigan. If we play like we did against Liverpool we can win,” he said.

“If we play like we did against Wigan we’ll have a problem. We’ve won away at Sunderland and Stoke this season. Only at Wigan was there a problem.”