Carlisle and Coyle both want to keep Cole

Carlisle believes Cole can play a big part for the Clarets next season and said of him: "He is a man of immeasurable and undoubted quality, and for anyone to have a player of his calibre in the squad can only be of benefit. Having him around, even if he can only play in half of the games, can only benefit us for the games when he is available."

Today manager Owen Coyle has also expressed a hope that Cole, who is out of contract at RK Sunderland in the summer, remains at Turf Moor and has not given up hope of persuading him to delay his retirement. "I think when I look at Andrew, he would enjoy playing again," Coyle said.

"I think he's loved every minute of this football club, albeit it has been a bit of a stop-start time with his niggling achilles. But he has shown when he is fully fit and on the pitch what he brings to the team. So I would envisage that Andrew would probably want to play on next season."