CHELSEA STRIKER Didier Drogba says he wants to stay at Stamford Bridge despite rumours of a move to China.

The 33-year-old, who joined Chelsea in 2004, has been linked with Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua, where former Blues team-mate Nicolas Anelka now plays.

But Drogba told the BBC’s Football Focus: “I’m really happy where I am. I belong to Chelsea. For me, that’s what matters.

“If I’m playing, if I’m not playing, it’s the manager who decides and I have to respect that.

“Everyone knows I want to stay in blue and everybody knows I love the club and the fans.”

Former France international Anelka signed a two-year deal to play in the Chinese Super League in December.

In his first news conference with his new club, the Frenchman said: “I hope Drogba will come. I’m in contact with him very often and if all goes well, we could see him in Shanghai.”

Drogba, who is 34 next month, arrived at Stamford Bridge from Marseille for a reported €29 million and in his first season helped the team win the Premier League and League Cup.

The Ivory Coast international collected another Premier League winner’s medal the following season and has also won three FA Cups, another League Cup and a third league title with the Blues.

However, the club are without a trophy since their Premier League success in 2010 and have struggled to make headway in the league in Andre Villas-Boas’s first season at the helm.

Asked how he would improve the team’s fortunes, Drogba said: “I don’t know, I’m not the manager but I think all together we can find a solution.”

Villas-Boas is the sixth manager Drogba has played under during his time at Stamford Bridge, with Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelotti preceding him.

“You cannot compare Ancelotti with Jose Mourinho and you cannot compare Ancelotti with Villas-Boas,” Drogba said. “They all have their specific things and their qualities.”

Drogba, who was speaking in the Ivory Coast to promote the work his Didier Drogba Foundation is doing in the country, also said it was down to Villas-Boas to decide who played up front, rejecting suggestions he could never make his partnership with Fernando Torres work.

“The manager takes the decisions and we respect those decisions,” said Drogba, who helped Ivory Coast reach the final of the recent Africa Cup of Nations before they lost on penalties to Zambia.

“If I’m playing, if I’m not playing, it’s the manager who decides and I have to respect that. That’s what we do in this team and that’s why we are always together.

“We respect managers’ decisions. We are going to keep doing that because that’s our strength.”