Loyal Cole backs new Chelsea boss

Chelsea fullback Ashley Cole has backed new manager Andre Villas-Boas and said he never thought about leaving the London club.

Villas-Boas was awarded the top job at Stamford Bridge after former boss Carlo Ancelotti was sacked following the Blues failure to win a trophy last season.

Some have criticised the appointment of 33-year-old Villas-Boas, claiming he is too young for the pressures of managing one of the top clubs in the English Premier League.

But Cole said the players were fully behind the man who led Porto to a treble of titles last season.

“Age is just a number, he has experience of being at Porto, a big club,” Cole told Sky Sports.

“And hopefully he can bring that glory to Chelsea but I don’t think the age thing is anything to worry about, I don’t think the players think about that. He is our manager now and we have to go out and fight for him.”

“Whatever manager comes in we respect him, we are not kids, everyone thinks there are egos at Chelsea, but there aren’t and we have to make Chelsea the squad of a few years ago and win trophies.”

Villas-Boas spent a season at Chelsea as an assistant under Jose Mourinho, and Cole said he had been impressed with the Portuguese’s hard work.

“Honestly, it was amazing how thorough he was,” Cole told The Sun. “He would brief Jose on all the players we were facing to the point where we knew which foot they favoured, whether they liked to go inside or outside, preferred to cross deep or short, their stamina levels, the lot.

“If we’d wanted to know what they had for breakfast I’m sure he could have found out for us.”

Former manager Mourinho, now in charge of Real Madrid, is reportedly interested in luring 30-year-old Cole to the Spanish capital.

But Cole insisted he was more than happy to remain at Chelsea and said his desire for success was still strong.

“Never even thought about it (leaving Chelsea),” Cole said.

“I had issues before where I thought about it, but this season I have been fine, I have been on holiday so I have not read anything.”

“There’s plenty of life left in me. I started out with Lee Dixon and Tony Adams and used to think ‘my God, these lot are old’. Now I’m sitting at training next to youngsters like Josh McEachran and Ryan Bertrand and they might be looking at me the same way.”

“But it makes you want to win even more, you get hungrier, and work harder to stop youngsters taking your place. I feel fine.”