Sport 04-02-2005 Cole Tap-Up Story Won`t Blow Over who: Chelsea what: Accused of holding improper transfer talks with Arsenal`s Ashley Cole where: LONDON when: Last Thursday snippet: Arsenal have demanded justice this week following a report by The News of the World on Sunday that Chelsea`s Jose Mourinho and Peter Kenyon held secret transfer talks with Gunners full-back Ashley Cole and his agent Pini Zahavi in a London hotel last Thursday. "The Premier League rules are very clear on this matter," says Arsenal chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, quoted in Monday`s Telegraph. "If the club is presented with evidence that those rules have been contravened I am sure we will take the matter further. It has been reported in a very definite manner and that makes you think something untoward has gone on. We cannot let this pass." "The allegations are extremely serious for Chelsea and, if proved to be correct, would mean that they have broken rule K3 of the Premiership`s regulations on illegal approaches to players or `tapping up` as it is known," says The Independent`s Sam Wallace. "That offence is punishable by either a heavy fine, points deduction or suspension from the Premiership." Cole, who is under contract at Highbury until 2007, has kept his silence. Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, says he trusts Cole not to have broken FA rules but can`t say the same about Mourinho. And Chelsea chairman Peter Kenyon staunchly refused to issue a denial, telling BBC Radio Five Live that he would not rise to tabloid bait. "We will do what we have consistently done around speculation regarding players," he says. "Since the start of the season we have been linked with over 50 players. We are not going to add to the speculation. You will never end it." But manager Jose Mourinho denied the meeting, saying that he was in Milan, where he met - just socially, you understand - with Brazilian international and Internazionale striker Ribeiro Leite Adriano. "I`d trained in the morning, [then] I flew to Milan and I met Adriano with a few persons from Internazionale," he says, quoted in The Guardian. "I just practised my Portuguese with him." The story looked like blowing over until Friday, when The Sun - which, for reasons best known to News International, did not publish its lead back page story "This Could Blow [The] Title Race Wide Open" on its website - claimed that a new witness, an employee at the Royal Park hotel, had come forward claiming to have seen the meeting there and had signed an affidavit to that effect. [... more]

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