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Ashley Cole is prepared to begin contract talks with up to five interested foreign clubs in January if an agreement is not reached to end his contract deadlock with Chelsea.
Cole, 31, is hoping that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich can be convinced to change his policy of only offering one-year deals to players over 30, with the England defender having already rejected the prospect of a short-term extension, ESPN reports.
There are no new talks planned imminently, but the two parties will meet again before Christmas in a bid to end the stand-off.
There is no fall-out or rift between Cole and club chiefs over the negotiations, with the former Arsenal star remaining “calm and collected” over discussions and viewing the option of talking to other clubs as a last resort.
Cole would like to end his career at Stamford Bridge and could be convinced to settle for a two-year-deal if it was offered.
If an agreement cannot be reached, Cole may reject the opportunity to sign a pre-contract agreement in January and wait until the summer before finalising his future in a bid to convince Chelsea that he is deserving of his demands.
Didier Drogba adopted a similar approach last season before quitting for Shanghai Shenhua
A similar situation faces Frank Lampard, 34, but while the midfielder might be tempted to stay on a year-to-year deal rather than take up a lucrative offer in the MLS, Cole is not willing to consider such an option.
Nigeria Union of Teachers on Wednesday set January 2013 as deadline for states that have not implemented the new Teachers’ Salary Structure to begin payment or face industrial disputes.
NUT National President, Mr. Michael Alogba-Olukoya, stated this in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.
The governors’ forum had in 2009 approved 27.5 per cent increase in salary of teachers in public schools, in line with the new Teachers Salary Scale.
Alogba-Olukoya lamented that 18 states were yet to commence implementation of the TSS.
He said that teachers’ welfare must always be held in high esteem, describing it as an important factor needed for the reform in the education sector.
According to the NUT president, the union has displayed enough patience and understanding by suspending its recent strike over the delay in the implementation.
Alogba-Olukoya observed that the affected governments were not showing concern to reciprocate the position of the teachers.
“We only suspended the strike, based on the intervention of the Minister of Education, who promised to prevail on all the defaulting state governments over the issue.
“However, we have started getting some commitments from some of the affected state governments who have promised to capture and commence the implementation of the TSS in their 2013 budgets.
“We, therefore, want to appeal to these state governments to be honourable enough to honour this agreement which we went into in 2009,” he said.
Alogba-Olukoya noted that teachers were not interested in strike because their position in national development was critical and should be treated with respect.
He warned that the union would not be held responsible for actions taken over non-implementation of the TSS by January 2013.
On the World Teachers Day, scheduled for October 5, Alogba-Olukoya said that series of activities had been lined up for the celebration.
“We have set aside a lot of activities to mark our day and celebrate ourselves in this part of the country because, truly we deserve to be celebrated.
“We shall also be using that day to officially co-opt teachers of all the 104 Unity Colleges across the country into our fold.
“You know that before now they had been seeing themselves as civil servants, even though they are all professional teachers,” he said.
Alogba-Olukoya said that the union was hopeful that the Federal Government would use the celebration to come out with policies that would create the enabling environment for teachers to perform optimally.
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