Juventus deny rumours of deal for West Ham striker Carlton Cole

26 January 2009 12:31
Juve manager Claudio Ranieri coached Cole when both were at Chelsea and he once described the striker as the best young player he had ever come across. [LNB]However, Juventus sporting director Alessio Secco has rubbished suggestions of a reunion, saying: "We are not interested in Carlton Cole. [LNB]"We are very happy with the players we have in the team and we will not make any moves in the January transfer market." [LNB]Cole is under contract with Gianfranco Zola's side until June 2010, having joined two years ago, after finding first-team chances hard to come by at Stamford Bridge. [LNB]Speculation began despite West Ham's chief executive Scott Duxbury insisting he didn't want to sell Cole, who has scored seven goals in 19 league games so far this season. [LNB]The club are also said to have rejected an £8 million offer for Cole from Tottenham, in a bid to hold on to their best players, following the departure of Craig Bellamy to Manchester City. [LNB]Meanwhile, Zola is said to be preparing a club record move to sign Brescia's Savio Nsereko for around £10 million. [LNB]The club has been tracking the 19-year-old German international for some weeks and director of football Gianluca Nani has now confirmed that talks are advanced. [LNB]"We are working on Savio of Brescia, and we are well advanced," he said. "We have never talked to anyone about Balotelli, if we have Savio in place then that could be us done in January."[LNB]Nani's comments were backed up by Savio's agent Patrick Bastianelli, who expects the deal to be completed before long. [LNB]"The player is very close to West Ham," he told the Italian media over the weekend. [LNB]"Savio will go away soon, and the boy is happy to find Zola, a great coach and with him he will only embrace an important technical programme from which he will only grow and improve. [LNB]"West Ham have accelerated the negotiations."[LNB]

Source: Telegraph