Ashley Cole is ready to leave his role at Chelsea and accept an offer to join Everton as part of the Toffees’ new backroom team under Frank Lampard, according to the Liverpool Echo.
Lampard took charge at Goodison Park on Monday to end Farhad Moshiri’s search for Rafa Benitez’s replacement. The Blues legend is now keen to bring his former Stamford Bridge teammate with him to Merseyside, following Paul Clement, Joe Edwards and Chris Jones.
Cole is currently the Under-16s boss at Chelsea after the west Londoners offered the 41-year-old a role in 2019. He also joined the England U21 set-up as an assistant in July last year as part of Lee Carsley’s team. But the England icon is now ready to join Lampard.
Everton opened talks with Cole after hiring Lampard as new manager
Reports by Sky Sports on Tuesday noted Everton had held talks with Cole over becoming one of Lampard’s assistants. The 107-cap left-back, who retired in 2019, is likely to finalise any arrival on Merseyside within the next few days ahead of facing Brentford in the FA Cup.
Edwards holds the role of being Lampard’s Goodison number two, with Clement and Jones first-team coaches. Lampard has also retained Duncan Ferguson, who The Athletic reported Everton approached ex-Toffees ace Carsley over being one of his assistants if given the job.
Carsley hired Cole as one of his England U21 assistants last year. But the decorated Three Lions icon also has eyes on one day becoming a Premier League manager in his own rights.
Cole discussed his aspirations to take inspiration from Carlo Ancelotti, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho last November. He stated, via quotes by the Mirror: “It’s something I definitely want to get into. Hopefully, in a few years, I can go into a managerial role.
“I would love to take bits from all my managers. If I could take all those three together and squash them into one, hopefully that will be me! A tough task.”
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