Arsenal to drive a hard bargain for Cole

Arsenal have admitted for the first time they are in talks with Chelsea about Ashley Cole and will sell the left back for the right money.

The clubs remain apart in their valuation of the England international, Arsenal having set the asking price at £30 million, and negotiations are continuing.

Barring a swift resolution, Cole is expected at Arsenal's training ground on Monday after his honeymoon. He had been due back a week earlier and imagined having had a move to Stamford Bridge wrapped up by now.

Chelsea's chief executive Peter Kenyon has stayed in London, rather than joining the team in the United States, to try to tie up transfer business.

Arsenal's vice-chairman David Dein confirmed discussions with the Premiership champions about Cole.

He said: "We have had some very civil talks with Chelsea and at the moment there is nothing more to say on that. He is our player and started with us when he was 16. If something happens, we will see but at the moment he is an Arsenal player."

It would be a major surprise if Cole remained an Arsenal player after the closure of the transfer window but Dein, driving a hard bargain with Chelsea, insisted he was not resigned to losing the 25-year-old.

"No, not really," he said. "Only if something happens and an offer is suitable and one we wish to accept. Until then he's under contract to us."

Cole did not expect to return to Arsenal when he said farewell to the manager Arsene Wenger before leaving for the World Cup. His relationship with certain members of the club's hierarchy collapsed last year amid the "tapping-up" affair involving Chelsea and he will feel angry at the price demanded for him, having believed he would be allowed to leave for considerably less.

Two years remain on Cole's contract and Arsenal would prefer to sell him abroad than to Chelsea, one of their chief title rivals in the Premiership and a club with whom their relations are strained.

Well aware of Chelsea's finances, which stretched to a £24.4 million outlay on Michael Essien and an even greater payment to Milan to capture the 29-year-old Andriy Shevchenko this summer, Arsenal expect a huge sum from the owner Roman Abramovich for the defender.

If Cole attends Arsenal's London Colney training centre on Monday he will find few team-mates there. The majority of the squad are in Austria where they complete a training camp by playing Schwadorf on Monday afternoon before flying back to Britain.

Players recovering from injury such as Freddie Ljungberg, Philippe Senderos and Lauren have been reporting to the training centre to continue their rehabilitation. The last remaining members of Arsenal's squad are due back on Wednesday, France's Thierry Henry and the Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann having been given extra time off after reaching the final weekend of the World Cup.

Arsenal play a friendly at AZ Alkmaar on Friday before their Champions League qualifier, most likely against Dinamo Zagreb, the following week but few expect to see Cole in action even if he is still at the club. The Croatian side lead Lithuanian outfit Ekranas 4-1 on aggregate.

Guardian Service