Our money is on 13 hours before there’s some “official denial” in the press over these quotes, but – for now – Andrei Shevchenko has confirmed one of the biggest Premiership tabloid stories of the season regarding a rift at Chelsea between himself, Abramovich, and Jose Mourinho,
“Yes it’s true I’ve complained about Mourinho – but there a lot of things which drove me to do that,” Shevchenko was quoted in The Mirror, as telling a German website.
“The manager never spoke to me or played me in a position where my strengths lie.
“It’s also no secret that I was more on Mr Abramovich’s wish list than the manager’s.”
“For the first time in my career a manager said in public that I didn’t completely fit in with his plan,” Shevchenko recalled.
“That’s not exactly great motivation. If he thinks that, why am I here?
“He is a tactical fox and has strict beliefs. But I’ve had better managers.
“In January if the club had loaned me out I wouldn’t have had anything against it.
“But that’s not an issue now.”
So it really does sound like Shevchenko was forced onto Mourinho by Abramovich, causing problems for both parties as Shevchenko neither fitted into how Jose wanted Chelsea to play, nor did he have any desire to. 100% Abramovich’s fault for deciding to employ a Real Madrid-esque transfer policy that inevitably ends in a failure to meet expectations, and completely renders useless the efforts of his highly paid manager, and highly paid Chief Scout Frank Arnesen. Credit to Mourinho and Sheva for making it work.
But hopefully Roman learned his lesson. But if he does take the same ruthless approach to his football club as he did in obtaining dodgy oil contracts, then our bets are on another club enjoying what remains of Jose Mourinho’s career.