Ashley Cole is not yet certain to move from Roma to the LA Galaxy, despite an official from the American club being quoted as saying a deal was "close".
A formal announcement regarding the arrival of the former England international was said to be approaching, according to an unnamed Galaxy official quoted in the Los Angeles Times.
Galaxy coach and general manager Bruce Arena also added fuel to the fire by confirming he was in the process of strengthening the club's squad.
"I would anticipate that we'll add three or four players to our roster," Arena said.
Arena added: "There are a lot of factors on why players come to our team as opposed to others.
"The Galaxy have a good reputation. Our players from Europe that have played here or are playing here are good spokespersons for our club."
Sources close to defender Cole insist that a possible transfer to Major League Soccer is simply one of "two or three options", one of which includes remaining at Roma, where Cole is understood to enjoy his present life.
The defender has infrequently featured for the Italian club since his arrival there from Chelsea in the summer of 2014, leading to occasional speculation that, as his illustrious career moves towards its conclusion, he will again move on in the pursuit of first-team football.
Barclays Premier League side Crystal Palace are among those Cole has been linked with, and while a transfer to the Galaxy would mean being reunited with former England team-mate Steven Gerrard and he would fit the profile of many of the American club's signings in recent years, the defender remains undecided about where his future lies.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here