Although Ashley Cole wasn’t rumoured to be one of the Blues players with a hotline straight to club owner Roman Abramovich, Teletext reports that there’s a renewed belief among the Chelsea players, a clear indication that confidence has clearly been dented under Scolari.

The England defender said: “There is a difference in the players. It is a fresh start for a lot of players and there is a different kind of belief.”

A fresh start for a lot of the players? It’s not as if Hiddink has recalled a bunch of guys that Big Phil has stuck in the reserves for no good reason. Who are the Chelsea players that Ashley Cole is referring to? Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack and Petr Cech were the rumoured troublemakers a month ago, are there any Blues supporters who thinks that Scolari should still be in charge?

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Guus Hiddink is a realist, unlike some of his fellow managers! The Evening Standard reports that the Dutchman is looking for his team to follow up victories over Aston Villa and Juventus by beating Wigan on Saturday, the sort of match that the team were struggling to win under Phil Scolari.

Hiddink said: “Alex Ferguson is in the lead and in the driver’s seat and can talk as he does. I respect him very much for what he has achieved over a long period at the club.

“They are in the lead and we are some points away, but there is still some way to go. There has to be a lot done on our side to challenge them, but we will try. We can’t afford to drop one single point.”

Wigan will be no pushovers at Stamford Bridge this weekend, with Steve Bruce’s team keeping things pretty tight at the back this season. Will Chelsea’s renewed title challenge be a short-lived one, or can Hiddink get the team pushing Manchester United all the way this season? Or is it all about winning the FA Cup and Champions League instead?

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The BBC reports that Didier Drogba clearly has a bee in his bonnet about Scolari, especially the way that certain individuals were criticised by his former manager. The Ivorian claims that it was wrong for Big Phil to make him a scapegoat after Chelsea got tonked 3-0 at Old Trafford a few weeks ago.

“When Scolari started blaming individuals, then that was bad,” Drogba told the Sun.

“To name one player as to blame for what happened in a squad of 24 players is wrong.

“How can one player be responsible for not winning for so many weeks and losing points?” Drogba added.

“This is not an individual sport. When you win games, everyone is happy and enjoys it together. But when we lose we have to lose together, too.

“If it makes it easier for some people to make me the scapegoat, then fine. All of us were below form against Manchester United, and, sometimes, maybe the coach chooses to make an example of one player. For that game I was the player blamed.”

Yes, it’s hard to see Drogba taking that sort of criticism on board, issuing an apology for his below-par performance when the rest of the team were equally as bad. It well and truly appears as though Scolari had lost a sizeable section of the Chelsea dressing room, with player power being one of the factors behind the manager’s sacking. Do Blues supporters think that they should sell the above striker or keep hold of him in the summer?

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The Press Association reports that Sir Alex Ferguson was shocked to hear that Roman Abramovich had sacked Scolari, despite the Brazilian only becoming manager last summer. He reckons that the London club have shot themselves in the foot with their decision to get rid, even if the experienced Guus Hiddink has entered the fold as his temporary replacement.

However, Ferguson has a different view, he told United Review: “I think they have played into our hands and that the title race now is going to be between ourselves and Liverpool.”

He continued: “However, I shall be keeping a wary eye on Aston Villa, who seem to have picked up the baton from Arsenal.

“I was shocked that Chelsea should part so soon with a manager of such great experience and proven success as ‘Phil’ Scolari.

“Their haste is a reflection of the sad way the game is going, with everyone from owners, the board members, the supporters and the media demanding instant success and showing absolutely no patience in the pursuit of their ambition.”

Is the Manchester United manager correct in his view of the Scolari sacking, or do Chelsea supporters see it differently? After all, it appeared as though the former Blues manager had lost certain players within the dressing room, while he had tendered his resignation on two occasions before he was axed. Are Liverpool supporters confident of bridging a five-point gap after the Red Devils beat Fulham tonight?

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Indeed, Scolari seemed adamant in a recent interview with France Football that Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka couldn’t play together up front. The Times reports that Anelka has refuted this, following his team’s 3-1 win over the Hornets, although the victory was only against a team in the bottom three of the Championship. Who is right, the player or the ex-manager?

“Of course we can work as a partnership,” Anelka said. “Like I said before and as Didier has said in the past, we’ve never tried playing us together. Even the 20 minutes on Saturday were good because we showed everybody that we can play together and we can score. It was me scoring, but it might be Didier next time. That’s good. And good for Chelsea.

“I’ve played as a striker all my life. To play on the right or the left is always difficult. To help Chelsea I can do that. But it’s even better if I can play up front with Didier because, if that’s the case, maybe I can help Chelsea even more.”

It took 75 minutes for Chelsea to find a breakthrough against Watford, so perhaps the jury is out on whether Drogs and Anelka can forge a decent partnership. Plus it’s worth remembering that Scolari was dismissive of the idea partly on the basis that the Blues didn’t have the personnel to play a 4-4-2 formation, especially as Kalou cares little for defending. Do you think the strike partnership will be favoured by Hiddink or can there only be room for one of them in the team?

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Leaving aside the fact that Watford are in the bottom three of the Championship, and that Chelsea huffed and puffed their way through most of the match, Ray Wilkins claims that other teams better watch out as the Blues are going to start dishing out some hidings. The BBC report that the man known as Butch is in a defiant mood after the victory, although most of us won’t be holding our breath when it comes to the Chelsea onslaught.

“People keep saying it’s been a difficult season,” said Wilkins after Chelsea’s 3-1 FA Cup win over Watford.

“We are in the Cup and in the hunt for the Premier League and Champions League. You haven’t seen the best yet.”

He added: “When we get lady luck on our side I think you will see us start giving a few teams a good hiding.”

Lady luck? Chelsea haven’t exactly been unfortunate this season, they have just been plain miserable against the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United recently. Hull were well worth their point at Stamford Bridge last Saturday and future opponents of the Blues won’t be quaking in their boots after they took 75 minutes to find a breakthrough against Watford. Do any supporters share Wilkins’ confidence?

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Dublin radio station FM104 tried, tried and tried again to speak with Kenyon, finally managing to get through and offer their services as a permanent replacement for Phil Scolari. One of the guys at the station impersonated Steve Staunton, although the Chelsea chief executive handles it pretty well to be fair.

Click here for the clip.

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“Not so!” according to Ray Wilkins, who is apparently shocked and disappointed that the former Brazil and Portugal coach has been axed. He claims that Scolari had not ‘lost the dressing room’, although it’s pretty obvious that some players liked him so we didn’t really need the obvious spelling out. The Daily Telegraph reports Butch in defensive mode.

“It’s totally untrue (that Scolari lost the dressing-room),” said Wilkins. “There is no player power at this club, the results unfortunately have not been what Roman [Abramovich] wanted and that’s why the change of manager.

“Whenever any coach coaches a club as big as Chelsea, any player that doesn’t play is going to be disgruntled, that’s a fact. They want to play but he can only pick 11 people. The players that were playing would have loved Felipe, the players that weren’t would have had an indifferent opinion. ”

Love’s a bit of a strong word Ray, steady on there old chap. While Didier Drogba threatened to boycott Chelsea when Jose Mourinho left, I don’t see the Ivorian doing the same this time around. In fact, he’s been quick to appoint the recruitment of Hiddink. It will be interesting to see what happens in the summer, when the club will clearly get shot of some dead wood and look to build a title-challenging squad.

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Chelsea have just announced losses of nearly £66 million for the past financial year, much of which was spent paying off Messrs Mourinho and Grant (Scolari’s golden goodbye will feature next year instead). What’s more, the Press Association reports that rather than continuing to splash the cash trying to finally land the Champions League, the club are about to get altogether more frugal.

Kenyon said: “In line with our long-stated business aims, any squad structuring in the summer will be funded prominently by sales as we have consistently reduced our net transfer spend over the last five years and will attempt to continue this trend.”

He added: “We have set ourselves ambitious targets… to require zero cash funding from the owner at the beginning of the financial year 2009/2010.

“We have consistently advocated the aim of self-sufficiency which has always been supported by the owner. We are hopeful of being close to these targets in the time-frames we have set given the underlying strengths of the business.”

Chelsea supporters, what do you make of this latest news? It’s actually quite refreshing to hear that the club are actually trying to balance the books in some shape or form, although it’s equally as certain that Manchester City are going to go wild with spending in their place. Nevertheless, does this mean that the Blues might struggle to continue challenging for honours, and which players do you think the club should sell in order to buy new ones?

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The Independent bring us excerpts of a revealing interview that the ex-Blues boss originally did with France Football magazine last week, where Scolari claims amongst other things that he had no option to pair Nicolas Anelka with Didier Drogba and that his team were too ‘bureaucratic’:

“At Chelsea we don’t have the player who can make the difference by himself by producing something magical on the pitch,” he said. “We miss that. I don’t know why. In the past, [Arjen] Robben was at Chelsea and he could make the difference. But now there is no one.

“Robinho could have been this player. He is not afraid to dribble, to take a risk. As a Brazilian, I like this. My team isn’t Brazilian enough. It is a ‘bureaucratic’ team. That’s the style of my players. That’s why Robinho would have done a lot of good for the team.

Asked why he did not regularly play Nicolas Anelka and Drogba in the same side, Scolari said he did not have the necessary players for a 4-4-2 system: “I don’t have those players, so I have to adapt. With my squad it’s very difficult to play with Drogba and Anelka up front. I don’t have the players to play on the wings in that system. [Salomon] Kalou can play on the wing in a 4-3-3, but not in a 4-4-2 because he doesn’t defend well enough.”

The former Chelsea manager also goes on to criticise Florent Malouda, something which is perhaps less controversial considering the Frenchman hasn’t turned it on since signing from Lyon. What do supporters make of Scolari’s revelations? Did he just tell it like it is or does it reveal that he was badly out of his depth as Blues manager?

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