Gary Cahill confident he can achieve England dream with Bolton

7:00am Saturday 27th June 2009

By Marc Iles

GARY Cahill believes he can stay in the England set-up without seeking a move away from the Reebok.

Wanderers’ highly-rated centre-half has got the bug for international football, having earned his first call-up to the squad from Fabio Capello earlier this month.

Talks about extending his contract with the Whites are ongoing but the 23-year-old recently dropped the biggest hint yet that he intends to continue his phenomenal progress in a Bolton shirt.

“Now that I have been involved in the England set-up, it makes me even hungrier to be involved once again,” he told the club’s official magazine, Extra Time.

“Hopefully next season I can have another one like I have just had at Bolton and I can stay in his (Capello’s) plans.

“Over a period of 12 months, the England call-up capped everything off really nicely and I want to keep progressing in the same way at Bolton next year.”

Arsenal had been monitoring Cahill’s progress at the end of last season, prompting Gary Megson to issue a stern warning to any potential suitors.

The Whites boss said it would take a fee larger than the £15million the club received for Nicolas Anelka to sign the former Aston Villa youngster — and that fee could well be increased now that he has joined the international fold.

“Obviously I was a little bit nervous because I didn’t know what to expect, but the first thing the squad did when I got there was to go for a meal and it helped to ease things.

“I spoke to the players that I knew already and John Terry had a word to congratulate me on the achievement of being called up to the squad. That was that, I was off and running, and I felt comfortable.

“When I sat there at night it sunk in, but the next day it felt completely normal and the only difference was that I was training with a different set of lads.

“To be honest, the three hour journey down to the team hotel flew by because I was responding to phone calls and text messages on my phone.

“All my friends, family and players from other teams had been in contact to pass on their good wishes, so my phone was red hot.

“It was humbling because some of those messages came from people I hadn’t spoken to in a while.”