Premiership: Chelsea want one more year from Zola

Chelsea have underlined their determination to persuade striker Gianfranco Zola to stay at the club next season.

Zola made his 200th appearance for the Blues in their 4-1 win against Ipswich, after being on the point of quitting Stamford Bridge last summer to return to Italy.

But he was talked into staying with the promise that although he is contracted until the summer of 2002, he would be allowed to leave at the end of this season.

Changes are certainly afoot at Chelsea, with Frank Leboeuf set to leave if Monaco raise their bid and Liverpool agreeing "in principle" to sell Robbie Fowler only to back down when he did not hand in a transfer request.

With coach Claudio Ranieri also aiming to reduce the average age of the squad, 34-year-old Zola may have wondered whether he was still wanted.

But while not reneging on their promise if Zola does still want to leave, Chelsea hope to persuade him this summer to spend a final season at Stamford Bridge.

Managing director Colin Hutchinson revealed: "We want him to stay. He signed a contract which takes him through to the age of 36 and he's looking better than ever now.

"We hope that he will stay here for one more season."

Hutchinson, who rates Zola as his "best signing of last summer", added: "History will surely regard him as one of Chelsea's all-time greats.

"When he finally calls it a day at Chelsea, it will be almost impossible to replace him."

Zola has clearly not yet made up his mind, revealing in the club programme: "I've been doing well this year. The only thing that matters is now.

"I am really focused. When the time arrives at the end of the season then I'll think about it."

In a recent interview, he revealed: "I was close to leaving last summer but I'm happy I decided to stay another year. I had my personal reasons and it wasn't an easy situation, but I sorted my problems out."

Zola's family remain his primary concern, with a desire that his children should grow up speaking Italian, but he is likely to be hit with the same player-power urging him to stay that made Dennis Wise change his mind.

Wise said: "He's a wonderful player, it's been a privilege to play with him for the past four-and-a-half years and he's also a wonderful person."

Ranieri, who coached Zola when he was a youngster at Napoli, added: "He sets such a good example of an Italian player abroad with the spirit he shows, the same spirit as Dennis Wise, and he transmits it to his team-mates."

Zola, who came to Chelsea four years ago at the start of their revolution, has since played some of the best football of his illustrious career, winning five cups and being voted Footballer of the Year.