Chelsea have warned Joe Cole that the club have a salary budget for new deals.
The England international is out of contract in the summer and has been linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur after spending the last seven years at Stamford Bridge.
Some sections of the media have even suggested that Cole would prefer a move to Spurs over Liverpool, but his wage demands of around £100,000 would pose a problem.
“We will sit down and talk to Joe Cole at the end of the season, and he knows that,” said Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay.
“We will do that with a number of players, but when it comes down to salaries you have to draw the line somewhere.
“Every time we push the wage levels up higher we have somebody else knocking at the door,” he continued without naming Cole.
“We’ve got to make a mark in the sand at some point.”
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