Spending could give Ranieri a headache

Like an eccentric billionaire with too many cars to drive, Claudio Ranieri is the football coach with so many players that he can't possibly use them all.

The imminent arrival of Joe Cole, for £6.6million, and Juan Sebastian Veron, for whom a £15m offer was today accepted by Manchester United, gives Ranieri what is arguably the strongest squad of players in the history of the Premiership.

His job is to make tactical sense of a jigsaw puzzle that now has too many pieces.

The personal fortune of the Russian oil magnate, Roman Abramovich, has fuelled an unprecedented assault on the transfer market and presented Ranieri with the players capable of challenging for the Premiership and Champions League titles.

That, at least, is the theory. In practice it may not be so straightforward. Ranieri's hardest task involves replacing Gianfranco Zola. A unique talent, he was the sorcerer who generated the attacking impetus in the Chelsea ranks.

Joe Cole may turn out to be the sorcerer's apprentice. Similarly inventive, the 21- year- old England midfielder has yet to lay claim to a specialist role. He played in a number of positions at West Ham, including the free role behind the strikers.

Billy Bonds, the former West Ham manager who welcomed him at Upton Park as a 13-year-old, said: "I don't think anyone knows his best role. He does well in the link role between attack and midfield but I was very impressed with his performance in the heart of midfield in West Ham's final game at Birmingham-last season. He showed that day he's developing the strength to work from box to box.

"He's always had the talent and marvellous ball control. He kept the ball so well that sometimes you'd want to give him his own ball. I remember him leaving the training pitch in tears as a kid, complaining that the other lads wouldn't pass to him."