Drogba dropped by Scolari again

DIDIER DROGBA has been dropped again from the Chelsea squad and told that he is not even required to turn up at Stamford Bridge today for the Premier League fixture against Stoke City as Luiz Felipe Scolari said that any of his players who wanted to leave during this month’s transfer window ought to do so.

Scolari, who omitted Drogba from the squad he took to Southend United on Wednesday for the FA Cup replay, intimated that he was preparing to recall the Ivory Coast forward, although not to the starting line-up where Nicolas Anelka will continue as his lone striker. Scolari said that Drogba had trained “very well” and that he stayed behind yesterday, of his own volition, for extra work.

Yet Scolari has wielded the axe to the bemusement of several members of the squad who are close to Drogba. They wonder whether Scolari is trying to turn the 30-year-old into a scapegoat.

Drogba was philosophical about the decision to leave him out at Southend and he accepts that he must work to regain his form and fitness. There has been no word of any bust-up between him and Scolari.

The Brazilian, though, was on the offensive yesterday, and he suggested that some of his players might have their minds elsewhere. He betrayed traces of paranoia when he said that managers and assistants from other clubs had gone behind his back to contact members of his first-team squad and, consequently, the players had become unsettled. He did not question his team’s effort in training or matches, rather the love that they had in their hearts for Chelsea and, by extension, their commitment to the collective cause.

Scolari did not name any names in his comments, which came after public criticisms on Tuesday of the performance levels of his players, but it was understood that Drogba was prominent in his thoughts.

“This is the time for everyone to play as a group, as a spirit and as a love to Chelsea or it’s the time to change club,” said Scolari. “We need to fight together until 27th May. If not, now is the time to change.”

Scolari grew agitated and conspiratorial as he pondered the behaviour of rival managers. Drogba has been linked to Internazionale and a reunion with the former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, although it is highly unlikely that anything will happen during this transfer window.That apart, there have been relatively few Chelsea regulars to be caught up in talk of a mid-season move. Scolari was asked where he felt the heart and the spirit of his team had gone. “I don’t know,” he said, before voicing his fears.“Maybe some offers (from) outside. Do you believe in the devil? No? But some players maybe believe that something is . . . ” He trailed off but then he challenged the agents acting for players to come clean and not to stir trouble behind the scenes. “Now is the time,” he said, referring to the open transfer window. “Now is the time, come and pay us but who has come? Zero.

“I know many managers and assistants call players. Now is the time to call and buy. Not make a problem for me. I don’t make a problem for other coaches because I have ethics. Pay what the club wants and go.”

Scolari has been undermined by Joe Cole’s knee ligament injury which will keep him out for at least eight weeks, probably many more, and he will also be without Deco today because of a calf strain. He is confident, though, that his young players can deputise if required and he has included four of them in his plans for the visit of Stoke – the defender Jeffrey Bruma, the midfielder Lee Sawyer and the forwards Gael Kakuta and Miroslav Stoch.

Scolari described Stoke as perhaps “the best team in the world on set pieces” and, surprisingly, he has decided to change his defensive marking system again. Having reverted from man-to-man to zonal at Southend, with no success, he said that he would employ a mixture of the two, depending on the set piece. He insisted that confusion would not be the result. A penny for Drogba’s thoughts, though, would surely reveal just that.

• Guardian Service