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Weekend football
20 September 2007
by Jerrad Peters

THE crisis at Stamford Bridge is snowballing. Following the shocking departure of Jose Mourinho, a handful of players have voiced their disappointment and disbelief. More, still, are believed to be pondering an exit from the club. Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has not won any friends among the squad with his appointment of Avram Grant as manager; and both supporters and former players have been outspoken in their criticism of the club's hierarchy.

A crowd of fans gathered outside Stamford Bridge yesterday afternoon as Mourinho negotiated a severance package with the board. On their lips were some new songs, sung to a familiar tune: "We want Mourinho," and "Bring back the Special One." Pat Nevin, the former Chelsea and Scotland winger, stated simply that "Avram Grant is going to be as welcome as Camilla at Diana's memorial." Harsh, perhaps; but rather generous considering the various assortments of venom spewing from the supporters' mouths.

Ricardo Carvalho, the former Porto defender who followed Mourinho from the Portuguese coastal city to Chelsea, remarked, "It's a very sad day for me and the rest of the team. I had a big offer from Real Madrid; but I stayed at Chelsea because of Mourinho."

Florent Malouda echoed the same sentiments. "I had big offers to play elsewhere," stated the former Lyon winger. "But I joined Chelsea because of Mourinho after our first meeting."

Didier Drogba was the most distraught at receiving the news. He is said to have broken down after hugging Mourinho at the club's Cobham training ground yesterday. The former manager addressed the players ahead of their morning training session before being whisked away in a black Mercedes. AC Milan have been interested in the 29-year-old Ivory Coast striker for some while. And as Drogba has yet to make an appearance in the Champions' League this season, he has suddenly become one of Europe's hottest commodities. Milan are rumored to be willing to pay upwards of 25M-pounds for his signature.

Frank Lampard, with slightly less than two years remaining on his current deal at Chelsea, is also likely to bolt for the exit door. And if Mourinho happens to land at one of Europe's big clubs, the 29-year-old midfielder will probably make every attempt to join-up with him, wherever it may be. In an attempt to soothe Lampard and his teammates, Abramovich caved to the England international's wage demands, yesterday -- believed to be approximately 135,000-pounds per-week.

Additionally, Paulo Ferreira and Michael Essien are thought to be extremely dissatisfied with where the club appears headed.

Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack, on the other hand, could not be more delighted. In a bust-up during training last weekend, Mourinho is said to have told Ballack that he would never play for the team again as long as he was in charge. Since his free transfer from Bayern Munich last summer, the 30-year-old Germany captain has battled lingering injury problems and continuously struggled for form and fitness. Shevchenko had also been effectively frozen-out of Mourinho's squad. The Ukrainian striker has scored just 14-goals in over 50-appearances in all competitions with the club.

To quickly address the confusion and discontent among his teammates, captain John Terry summoned a players-only meeting for this afternoon. The England skipper gathered the squad at the Cobham facilities and discussed, among other things, the hiring of Avram Grant as manager. Grant, a personal friend of Abramovich, appears to many as little more than the Russian billionaire's puppet on the sidelines.

Still, the 52-year-old Israeli can count two current Premier League managers among his greatest admirers. Harry Redknapp, under whom he worked as Technical Director at Portsmouth, hailed his former employee as a bright, brilliant student of the game. And Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Erickson stated that Grant "knows everything about the Premier League."

Mourinho, en route to Brazil for a holiday, appeared briefly on Portuguese television last night. "I'll take my time and relax after what happened," the 44-year-old said. "I've worked hard the last few years. I'm not going to rush into a new job."