'Roman Abramovich came to speak to me after I'd had an argument with Jose Mourinho and put an official transfer request in. It was very unusual: he wanted to keep me' Joe Cole on dealing with Chelsea's former owner

"We talked about leaving, then I said to my agent, 'OK, let's put the official request in.' Peter Kenyon was the go-between, so my agent will have rung Peter and said, 'Look, Joe's not happy, he's fallen out with Jose, he officially wants to leave.' That's how a transfer request works it's not like a big blind date where you go and give someone a piece of paper. Roman felt the need to come out and speak to me at the training ground, which was very unusual."

"I was adamant, but he probably thought, 'This kid just needs a little bit of love.' He wanted to keep me and was like, 'Don't worry, you're a Chelsea player.' I didn't really want to leave, I was just throwing my toys out of the pram — it was all just forgotten about afterwards. At the end of that season, I ran through to score at home against Manchester United and put us 2-0 up, which sealed our second successive title."

Joe Cole was signed by Claudio Ranieri and became a key young English addition to Chelsea during Roman Abramovich's ownership. Cole enjoyed significant success under Jose Mourinho but experienced a falling-out with Mourinho that led him to consider leaving and prompt a formal transfer request via his agent and Peter Kenyon. Roman Abramovich personally spoke to Cole at the training ground to persuade him to stay. The dispute was quickly resolved and Cole went on to a productive spell, including scoring at home against Manchester United to make it 2-0 and secure Chelsea's second successive league title.

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