English Premiership
Cahill's Chelsea move on
2012-01-06 17:15
London - Bolton manager Owen Coyle said Friday Gary Cahill was likely to have played his last game for the club and that the defender's move to Chelsea should be complete by the end of the weekend.
Coyle confirmed that Cahill would miss Saturday's third round trip to Macclesfield, meaning the England international had probably worn a Wanderers shirt for the last time.
Bolton and Chelsea agreed a fee for Cahill last week, leaving the player's representatives to negotiate personal terms with the Londoners.
Coyle denied suggestions that Cahill's absence against Macclesfield was linked to his looming transfer, stating only that the defender needed a rest after testing matches against Wolves and Everton.
"Gary Cahill will be one of those to miss out on the game, and it's nothing to do with the continuing speculation regarding Chelsea," Coyle said.
"He's one of a number of players that probably needs to rest given the amount of games they've played.
"And moving on to that, my own opinion is I think there's a chance the deal can be concluded by the end of the week. That's where we're at but I'm not a party to any continued dialogue between Chelsea and Gary's representative.
"They were respectful of the other night, the fact we had a big game against Everton and that kept Gary focused and he showed his quality by doing that in the game."
Coyle also dismissed suggestions that other clubs including Manchester United could make a late bid to sign the player.
"There hasn't been any dialogue between ourselves and Manchester United or anything like that," he said.
"We as a football club agreed a deal with Chelsea Football Club and for me that's binding. The only way that will fall down is if the relevant parties don't agree. But my own feeling is I'm pretty sure they can get to a place that they're all happy."