Cool Grant has Eriksson touch says happy Joe

The England midfielder sees strong similarities between Avram Grant and Eriksson, who takes his Manchester City team to Stamford Bridge tomorrow.

Grant is slowly imposing his own personality and tactical style on the dressing room and, although some players with close emotional bonds to Jose Mourinho have found it hard to accept, Cole is among those relishing the idea of playing with more freedom.

"Avram's very similar to Sven in his man-management style," said the 25-year-old. "I played under Sven for a long time. It took me a while to convince him that I could play, but for the last two years of his reign I played more or less all the time.

"I like Sven. He's a great manager and a top bloke who gets an unfair time. You can see what a good job he's doing at Man City.

"I really enjoyed working with him and now I'm just trying to listen and learn from the things the new manager and coach are bringing into the team.

"We're all trying to get on a new system. It's just a different style. We are going for more expansive play and I'm just trying different positions further up the pitch."

Four years ago, when Cole was struggling to convince Claudio Ranieri to trust in his natural talents after a £6.6million move from West Ham, the midfielder dropped in unannounced for a chat with his England manager.

Eriksson said: "One day in the office, in the middle of the week, I got a phone call from reception saying there was a young man who wanted to have a cup of tea and speak to me.

"When I asked who it was, they said it was Joe Cole. He just wanted to talk about football and to get some advice because at that time he was on the bench at Chelsea.

"He is a football man. He lives for his football. I always rated him very highly. I hardly ever left him out."

Eriksson offered a hand of friendship to another of his former England players yesterday, promising Shaun Wright-Phillips that he would always be welcome back at Manchester City.

Wright-Phillips was left out of the 2006 World Cup squad by Eriksson after a lack of match action at Chelsea and the winger's father Ian Wright was an outspoken critic of the Swede during his England reign.

The player did not even make the bench for Wednesday's Champions League game against Schalke, sparking interest from potential buyers.

"If Shaun Wright-Phillips wants to come back, I would open the gate personally for him tomorrow," said Eriksson, who has been promised more transfer cash in January by club owner Thaksin Shinawatra.

Chelsea will be more concerned by the prospect of losing unsettled striker Didier Drogba, who claimed last week he wanted to leave the club and who has been described by Frank Lampard as the world's best centre forward.

Lampard said: "Didier is the best striker I've played with, simple as that. Wayne Rooney is also a world-class player, who creates and scores goals, but as an out-and-out striker there's no one better than Didier.

"He's got an all-round game, with pace and power, he's a team player, and scores goals with his head and his feet. He's the best. He's a great lad to have in the dressing room and always fights to the end.

"The way he's played in the last 18 months there's no one better in world football and it's really important he stays. You want players like Didier Drogba alongside you, that's for sure.

"He'll make his own decision, but when playing for us, even with the controversy that's surrounded him in the last week, he's put in a couple of performances that have shown what he's all about."

Chelsea were fined £30,000 yesterday by an FA disciplinary panel for failing to control their players after John Obi Mikel's red card at Manchester United last month in Grant's first game in charge.

Assistant manager Steve Clarke was given a suspended fine of £5,000 for using abusive and/or insulting words.