Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has reacted very angrily to reports suggesting that his star striker Didier Drogba is on the verge of a move to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan.
Newspaper reports over the last couple of days have suggested that the Chelsea man has already met with Inter sporting director Marco Branca with a January move to the San Siro being their topic of discussion.
Scolari is understandably unhappy with this speculation and has proceeded to conduct his first genuinely angry press conference since taking the helm at Stamford Bridge. Scolari said that he isn’t a ‘policeman’ for his players and therefore doesn’t know where they are all of the time.
The former Brazil coach was then asked whether Drogba had been given permission to speak to Inter officials and he reacted with a great deal of annoyance in his voice as he said ‘Ask Peter Kenyon, ask Roman Abramovich, – I am only the coach’.
This type of reaction from Scolari is likely to create even more rumours about the future of Drogba as it indicates that the Chelsea boss doesn’t have much control over whether he will leave the club or not. In fact, his comments suggested that Drogba may have been speaking to Inter without the manager’s permission. That would certainly explain the anger as far as Scolari is concerned.
To be fair though, it is my opinion that Drogba’s future has lied away from Stamford Bridge for some time now. He just doesn’t seem like a Chelsea player anymore. He has only played nine games so far this season and has only scored one goal. This came in the League Cup in a game where he decided to throw a coin into the crowd to overshadow his earlier strike.
Overall, the football odds weren’t expecting Drogba to be at Chelsea next season and I think these latest reports about a possible Inter move exaggerate this even further. For some time now, Drogba has produced far more negative press than Chelsea need and perhaps they would be better without him. Especially considering all his injury problems of late.
Despite serving a three game suspension in domestic football, Drogba is available to face Bordeaux this evening, but considering Nicolas Anelka’s recent form I think he will have to settle for a place on the bench – presuming Scolari isn’t so angry that he doesn’t involve him at all. It will be interesting to see.
By Thomas Rooney – A sports writer who blogs about football betting
