Chelsea’s determination to prevent their assistant first-team coach, Steve Clarke, from joining West Ham is likely to be strengthened after if emerged that Jose Mourinho had recommended the Scot to Gianfranco Zola, the new manager at Upton Park.

Mourinho and Clarke enjoyed a fruitful partnership during their three years at Stamford Bridge and the Portuguese has told Zola to make Clarke’s appointment as his assistant a priority. Zola and Mourinho spoke on the phone shortly after the Italian was confirmed as Alan Curbishley’s replacement on Thursday. (Guardian)

This adds yet another element to the testy relationship between West Ham and Chelsea. Although the Kings Road club have conceded that Clarke can leave (after initially rejecting his resignation) they want 5million quid for him in compensation, something West Ham are ready to dispute…

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Deco is a player they have courted in a minor fashion for some time, and today they wrapped up an £8m transfer for him pretty quietly. The Portuguese (alleged) partyboy will sign on July 1st on a two-year deal. Deco himself said of the deal:

“It is good for me to be here and first of all I am very happy to be here,”(www.chelseafc.com)

30-year-old Deco was told he was surplus to requirements by new Barca coach Pep Guardiola, and the 8 million could look to be a tidy bit of business as he hasn’t featured prominently. There has been many stories of the playmaker’s partying antics, leading former coach Frank Rijkaard to leave him out of the team. New boss and ex-Portugal supremo “Big Phil” Scolari will stand for none of it.

Deco’s arrival could hasten the move of Frank Lampard to Inter Milan. It’s no secret that Lampard wants to be reunited with ex-gaffer Jose Mourinho. At least that is the view of BBC 5 Live’s football correspondent Jonathan Legard.

“Deco’s arrival looks like hastening the departure of Frank Lampard, who has done little to quell long-term speculation that he is bound for a reunion with Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan.

“Barring a last-minute change of heart on both sides it’s a question of when he signs in Italy, not if.”(Legard)

So Chelsea fans, will you be happy to wave goodbye to Frank and say hello to a man who has won 2 Champions League medals with 2 different clubs, or would you rather keep Lamps and think Red Rom should stop trying to build the new Galacticos?

Paul Smith, not to be confused with the fashion designer, has taken Chelsea to an industrial tribunal, claming that he is owed around £370k after being ousted in July 2007. He held a director position up until this time, but was given the axe and now wants suitable compensation, claiming that he was betrayed by the Blues chief executive. He also has some interesting comments to make about the club’s Russian owner, although they’re hardly surprising.

Yesterday, as the case got under way, Smith spoke of his “sense of betrayal” at the way he was treated by Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon, likening it to the “shabby” way former manager Jose Mourinho was sacked last year.

“I think I did a good job out of adversity in that first year and subsequently and my treatment at the hands of Chelsea has been shabby.

“You will have to ask Jose about his treatment. He got similar treatment.”

He told the tribunal: “Curiously, Mr Kenyon declared that he was sympathetic to my position and believed that Mr Abramovich was so detached from the real world that he didn’t make decisions that would be regarded as rational by the general public.

“Maybe Mr Abramovich thought everyone had their own plane and yacht and he wasn’t familiar with the concept of a mortgage.”

It’s probably a bit far-fetched to suggest Roman thinks everyone has a yacht – after all, they’d be crashing into his all the time if that was the case! Still, it doesn’t paint a very good picture of the good ship Chelsea, who seem to receive more than their fair share of bad publicity. Not very good when you’re trying to rule the world but perhaps evidence that karma is in existence.

The Times now report that the German captain has had an increasing say in the tactics of the team, liaising with manager Joachim Low to such an extent that it’s almost as though the Germans have a gaffer on the pich as well as the sidelines (or in the stands as has been the case recently).

“I am more of a captain now,” Ballack said. “I am two years older than in the World Cup and my influence has become greater. I discuss training sessions with the coach more often, as we’ve been working together for four years. We talk often and he asks me what I think. We’ve got to know each other better and better and I’m completely at one with the thoughts of the coach. He knows he can rely on me and I can rely on him.

“After the Croatia defeat, we had an important meeting. As captain, I naturally demanded to discuss our weak points. In certain situations, the team had become a little careless. It only affected us by a few per cent, but it had to be addressed. Everyone had to understand the problems and I dealt with certain players very vigorously, using tougher language than I would have liked. I am not an aggressive guy, but if it concerns the achievement of the national team, then I will show no restraint.”

Chelsea fans will surely be heartened by Ballack’s performances and leadership skills – will it be enough to wrest the captaincy from John Terry? While this might have been unthinkable under the regimes of Avram Grant and Jose Mourinho, a new managerial regime might have fresh ideas and Ballack undoubtedly ticks the right boxes as far as the armband is concerned.

When you think Steve Sidwell has just been sold for somewhere in the region of £5m, surely it would take a much bigger bid for Chelsea to even consider letting their second favourite son leave. But with Lampard stalling over a new contract, perhaps they will be forced to sell at a low price or risk him leaving on a free.

The Guardian reveal that the feisty Brazilian has been in touch with none other than Steve Kean about a possible role at Stamford Bridge. Never heard of him? Why, he’s Chris Coleman’s Portuguese-speaking assistant at Coventry City silly, who has decided to turn down the chance of a blatant payrise and a more glamorous role to stay at the West Midlands club instead.

Apparently, Kean spent six years in Portugal as a player with Coimbra and would have acted as a translator between manager and players – who knows, he might have become the new Jose Mourinho!

“There was someone acting on behalf of Scolari who contacted me about a role at Chelsea,” said Kean. “I was very honest and explained that I’m under contract on a very exciting project at Coventry. I immediately phoned Chris [Coleman, the Coventry manager] and Ray [Ranson, the club chairman] to tell them about it and told them why I thought Chelsea had contacted me.

“I can speak Portuguese, I’ve got a lot of experience in the Premier League and I suppose I tick the boxes of what they’re looking for to help Scolari get started over here. That’s probably where it has come from. I have to say I was very flattered by the approach but the simple fact is I’m at Coventry and we are just getting started on something very exciting.”

What’s so exciting at Coventry that has prevented Keano (to his mates) from joining Chelsea? Have he, Coleman and Ranson just started a game of monopoly? I bet Kean has managed to quickly land Mayfair and Park Lane and is just about to build hotels on those squares. Could you walk away from that?

Instead, JM reserves words of praise for Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, who he seems to hold more responsible for winning him lots of silverware at Stamford Bridge. Talk about a come-and-get-me-plea from the Internazionale manager. The Daily Mail report that he’s practically tripping over himself (an amusing thought) to land Lamps and Deputy Drog, as well as Deco.

The former Blues boss, who is also keen to sign Barcelona’s Deco — who he managed at Porto and is also a target for Chelsea — said: “I am not nostalgic but I really like those three players, they helped me win some great titles.

“I cannot forget Deco, Lampard and Drogba.

“These are players who I could never say no to. I would love to work with them again in future, but I am not too obsessed with this idea.

“I don’t know which of the three will leave their clubs but we’ll see.”

It would almost be more of a surprise if Drogba didn’t leave for Milan in the summer, especially with all his histrionics last season, threatening to stop playing for Chelsea after they axed his beloved manager. Surely the club are preparing to lose him, although is Lampard’s exit as certain?

Exhibit B – Frank Lampard is inexplicably spending his hols on a packed public beach, let’s hope he’s having a long hard think about his potential Inter move, as the whole ‘Frank is leaving Chelsea’ malarkey has been floating around for years now.

Exhibit C – Gareth Barry to Liverpool, as excruciating a combination as haemorrhoids and constipation, and one that is still rolling on. And on. And on. And on.

Three irritating transfer rumours that are driving the footballing community to the edge of sanity, but which one is the most annoying?

The Guardian report that the Italian champions have now gone on record to confirm that they want to sign Frank Lampard more than anything in the whole wide world. There is little doubt that this Interest has been brought about by installing his former Chelsea manager in charge at the club, although will they be able to wrest him from Stamford Bridge?

Mourinho is keen on adding the midfielder, who turns 30 next week, to his ranks at the Nerazzurri for a fee of about £8m. “Everybody considers Lampard a great player, but this doesn’t mean that signing him will be easy,” said Massimo Moratti. “We like him, though, and he’s our No1 priority. Mourinho likes Lampard a lot. We all know that he can be a great player with us.”

There is surely doubt that Lamps’ departure would be a big blow to Chelsea, although perhaps Scolari doesn’t rate him that highly and believes he can replace him with someone better (Deco for instance). It must be weird for the future Chelsea manager to see all this talk going on while he’s trying to concentrate on Euro 2008, how can he be in two places at once though!

The Daily Mail report that the Portuguese defender is far from happy at how Scolari’s predecessor was treated by the Blues. Avram Grant was swiftly sacked after failing to land the Premier League, or Champions League, yet Ricky is a bit perturbed by it all a month later.

“Avram did a great job, but they still decided to sack him. Yet after Jose Mourinho left, he picked up the team and got good results.

“It was very cruel. He did a great job and he could have carried on, but they decided to let him go. It was very ruthless.

“The new manager will be my third in a year, and in football you need stability if you want to be successful.”

Has Carvalho just had a fall-out with Big Phil or something? The other day, he was waxing lyrical about Scolari taking charge at the Bridge. Perhaps Jose Mourinho has been on the phone, begging him to help shore up the Inter defence next season and telling him to ditch Chelsea and their manager merry-go-round.