Mourinho closes in on Maniche signing

DINAMO Moscow sports director Boris Ignatiev has admitted a loan move for Maniche to Chelsea is on the cards.

Blues boss Jose Mourinho wants his compatriot to bring some cover to his squad in January and reports in Portugal have claimed that a deal is as good as done between the two clubs.

However, Ignatiev has revealed that the transfer talks have yet to be concluded.

"Conversations with Chelsea are still continuing," said Ignatiev.

"But they are the last parts of the negotiation. It is possible that Chelsea will take Maniche on loan."

The midfielder is keen to link up again with the manager who did so much for him at Porto.

"I'd go to any team with a boss like him as you know his way of understanding football is never going to change," he said.

"He's been the best coach I've ever worked under and I won't try to hide it."

Meanwhile, Joe Cole reckons Chelsea will look back on a frosty December night in Manchester as the night they retained the Premiership title.

Seven weeks after they suffered their only league defeat of the current season at Old Trafford, and on the ground where they lost their only game last term, Chelsea conquered their Manchester hoodoo when Joe Cole swept home the winner against Man City eleven minutes from time.

It was a barely deserved victory given City's incredible efforts, but on such results are champion teams built. And, just as a similar scrappy win at Blackburn 12 months ago provided the defining moment of Mourinho's first season in charge, so Cole thinks their latest success will be pivotal in the second.

"We will probably look back at the City result at the end of the season and it will be one of the most important wins, similar to Blackburn last year," Cole said.

"They were probably the best team we have played, organisation-wise, all season."

Cole's form is one of the major reasons why £21 million man Shaun Wright-Phillips could not even get on the bench for what should have been an emotional return to his former club.

And Cole, who has been tipped for stardom ever since he made his Hammers debut as a raw 17-year-old in January 1999, admits life could not be much better just now.

"This is the best I have ever played," he said. "I am playing for the champions. We are top of the Premiership, into the second round of the Champions League and I am playing well for them. I love the club, I love playing for them and we are all having the time of our lives."

Cole credits Mourinho's influence as part of the reason for his improvement but backing from his family has also been an important factor.

"Things are just going really well at the moment and you cannot say it is down to one thing," he said.

"I have been established for a long time now. I have been a regular for more periods than not over the past 12 months and I have been playing well for the best side in the country.

"I have always said, as long as I am out there, winning games with the lads and showing what I can do, I am happy. I won't get over-excited. I have always taken praise and criticism in the same way. I just want to keep playing because when you are in form you get balls dropping for you like they did for me in the six-yard box last night."

lBarcelona midfielder Mark van Bommel says they will turn the tables on Chelsea in February's Champions League clash.

"It will be different because last year the first match was at home. Also, this year we've got a greater variety of players, with the four players who were injured last year all fit.

"Only Xavi will be missing for the moment."

Real Sociedad striker Nihat Kahveci has announced he is close to agreeing a deal to leave San Sebastian in the transfer window - with Spartak Moscow his likely destination.