Owen Coyle believes Gary Cahill could be out on his way out of Bolton by the weekend, with the centre-half closing on a switch elsewhere.
Trotters boss expects centre-half to complete Blues move
Owen Coyle believes Gary Cahill could be out on his way out of Bolton by the weekend, with the centre-half closing on a switch elsewhere.
Chelsea have agreed a fee for the England international and remain the favourites to secure his signature.
Bolton have been readying themselves for the day that Cahill departs the club for some time, with his contract set to expire at the end of the season.
They have accepted that there is little they can do to prevent a sale and are prepared to cash in on one of their most prized assets.
Coyle has confirmed that Cahill will play no part in the Trotters' FA Cup third round clash with Macclesfield on Saturday, with a deal involving the 26-year-old now imminent.
He said: "Gary Cahill will be one of those to miss out on the game, and it's nothing to do with the continuing speculation regarding Chelsea. He's one of a number of players that probably needs to rest given the amount of games they've played.
Dialogue
"And moving on to that, my own opinion is I think there's a chance the deal can be concluded by the end of the week. That's where we're at but I'm not a party to any continued dialogue between Chelsea and Gary's representative.
"They were respectful of the other night, the fact we had a big game against Everton and that kept Gary focused and he showed his quality by doing that in the game."
Coyle, meanwhile, has again denied that any other club has come in for Cahill, with speculation suggesting that Manchester United are interested and could attempt to hijack Chelsea's deal.
The Scot said: "When there's continued conjecture and everything that goes with it people are always going to throw up names. There hasn't been any dialogue between ourselves and Manchester United or anything like that.
"We as a football club agreed a deal with Chelsea Football Club and for me that's binding. The only way that will fall down is if the relevant parties don't agree. But my own feeling is I'm pretty sure they can get to a place that they're all happy."
