Cahill - sign today or deal off say Chelsea - NIXON

Chelsea are ready to meet Gary Cahill - and demand a straight answer on their £22million contract offer.

The Blues' manager Andre Villas-Boas and chief executive Ron Gourlay have run out of patience with Bolton's England centre-half after agreeing a £7million fee with the Trotters a fortnight ago, and want an immediate decision from him.

They had hoped to meet Cahill on Wednesday, but were thwarted.

Club and player will now try to close the deal and finalise terms on a contract running until 2017 in the next 24 hours.

Cahill puzzlingly spoke to Bolton boss Owen Coyle and chairman Phil Gartside on Wednesday, despite being cleared to head to London to seal the transfer.

It has been stressed by Bolton that there are no rival bids from Manchester United or Manchester City for Cahill.

Chelsea will go elsewhere if he does not say 'yes' on Thursday.

The delay is putting both clubs on edge, because Coyle needs the cash from selling Cahill to make deals of his own, and Bolton do not want to lose him on a Bosman in the summer.

Cahill has had two weeks to pull the trigger on swapping a relegation battle for Champions League football.

His stalling has shocked insiders close to the deal.

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He's a good lad and player, but he needs to bugger off to Chelsea now!

I wonder if he still hankers to stay in the north west ? Being from Sheffield I would imagine London is like a foreign country to him. If he turns Chelsea down then we will have nowt to spend on new players.

Sounds like there is a bit of a stalemate which isn't good for us in terms of bringing bodies in.

Andre Villas-Boas has set no deadline for a deal involving Gary Cahill to be completed by, with Chelsea still locked in talks with the Bolton defender.

"Still an ongoing negotiation, not that we don't want it resolved as soon as possible," Villas-Boas said when asked to give an update on the talks.

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As I've said all along, and exclusively revealed on BA, Cahill really doesn't want to go down south. He's let this drag on in the hope someone else comes in at the last minute.

Natasha Whittam wrote:As I've said all along, and exclusively revealed on BA, Cahill really doesn't want to go down south. He's let this drag on in the hope someone else comes in at the last minute.

If he wants to live in the north he should sign for ...erm Bolton. Either way he should stop posing and do something.