Villa boss admits interest in former Chelsea defender

Aston Villa manager Remi Garde has admitted he is interested in signing Roma left-back Ashley Cole.

Cole, who made 229 Premier League appearances for Chelsea after joining from Arsenal in 2006, left Stamford Bridge for Roma in 2014 but is free to leave in January having not featured for the Italian club since March.

Garde is on the market for a new full-back after Jordan Amavi was ruled out for the remainder of the season with a serious knee injury last month and has earmarked Cole as a possible target.

“Every good player is interesting for me and Ashley is a good player,” the Villa manager is quoted as saying by The Guardian.

“He is someone who has experience but he didn’t play for a while now. Experience is also something we need.

“I will speak soon with the club and I’m already working on the January window. We know what we want to do.”

In Cole’s last season at Chelsea, only John Terry (90.2%) had a greater pass success rate than Cole (90%) of players to make more than 10 appearances in the league

For more stats on Ashley Cole, click here to visit his WhoScored player page