"I don't even know what I want to do now" - photo Ben Sutherland
If you’re a journalist whose job is to find speculative Chelsea gossip, consider your job safe in these turbulent financial times. The rumour mill has been churning relentlessly since the sacking of Scolari and the hiring of Hiddink. Today, Sport without Spin’s eye was caught by Setanta’s coverage of Didier Drogba’s thoughts and feelings on life now that Scolari has gone – and now that he has scored twice in three games, it seems as if Drogba wants it to be known that he is happy at Chelsea:
But the striker, who will turn 31 this month, has revealed that he plans to complete his contract with Chelsea before considering his future.
Drogba, who is contracted to Chelsea until the summer of 2010, told French radio station RMC: “I want people to stop saying that I will come back to Marseille or go to Inter.
“I want to stay here until the end of my contract.”
Did Didier have this brainflash, decide to tell the world, and forget to mention it to his agent? The only reason we wonder is that the same author wrote another article for Setanta just 24 hours before, detailing the comments of Thierno Seydi, suggesting that Drogba had in fact been quite open to the idea of moving to Inter Milan:
Seydi told L’Observateur: “Since last year, there have been two firm offers: Inter and Manchester City, who offered me a golden deal.
“I was okay, so was Didier, but Chelsea’s directors did say ‘no’. They refused a €20 million transfer (£18 million) plus a 30-year-old player.
“It proves how much they trust Didier. And the president [Abramovich] was right to keep Didier because the team are winning again since he’s back in.
“That’s simple, the four biggest clubs in the world are interested in him (laughs) but I won’t say more. That’s for sure.
“Didier is one of the 10 best-paid players in the world, but humility is part of his personality. (…) I want him to become an African Michel Platini when his career is over, a decision taker.”
Player and agent saying almost the opposite things within a day of one another? This calls for further investigation. It looks as if Seydi really said those things – here is the interview with the Senegalese newspaper L’Observateur – they’re certainly direct quotes (in French) in what is a fairly wide-ranging interview. Does that cast doubt on Drogba’s words on French radio station RMC?
Interestingly, RMC did indeed run the story today on their website, complete with quotations. But his words on Scolari seemed eerily familiar:
«Comment un joueur peut-il être responsable si on perd pendant autant de semaines et si on perd des points ? Je respecte Scolari et je n’ai pas eu de discussions avec le propriétaire. Si j’avais eu tellement de pouvoir, Mourinho serait encore là ! »
Or, in translation:
“How can one player be responsible for not winning for so many weeks and losing points? “I have respect for Scolari as a man and a coach but I was not involved in any discussions with the owner.
“And if I had as much power with the owner as has been said, then Mourinho would still be here, no? If I had that power!”
We have to extend our thanks to the Sun for providing the translation in English here… on February 20th. These quotes are two weeks old. So what are the original origins of their origination then?
The Telegraph, reporting the same day, say he “told the Sun”. Other English media sources seem to take their lead from the Sun story too. As for the French, L’Equipe runs an article on February 20th which also cites the Sun as the source of the comments, as does La Provence. That makes the radio interview that Setanta report seem just a little suspicious.
Quite why the quotes reappear afresh in the French and English press today is puzzling. Perhaps they are the ripple effect of the Seydi interview in the Senegalese newspaper. Perhaps it is simply overzealous reporting. Three things, however, can be deduced. Firstly, Drogba and Seydi might need to talk more – if Drogba meant he wanted to stay, don’t let his agent run his mouth off about the deals that nearly were, especially when they mention a club Didier asked not to be linked to. Secondly, journalists ought to be careful with the origins of their quotes.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, if you are the Sun, and appear to have got the original quotes first on February 20th, don’t, and we can’t stress this enough, rewrite the article today and present the same quotes as a response to Seydi’s chattering yesterday. You might undermine yourselves.
DIDIER DROGBA has moved to end speculation surrounding his future by committing himself to Chelsea.
The striker has been linked with a summer transfer to Inter Milan or Manchester City and Marseille have also expressed their interest in re-signing the 30-year-old.
But the Ivory Coast hitman insists he intends to see-out his contract with the Blues, which runs until 2010.
Drogba said: “I want people to stop saying that I will come back to Marseille or go to Inter.
“I want to stay here until the end of my contract.”
But Drogba’s representative, Thierno Seydi, revealed the hitman was tempted by a switch to City last year, only for Chelsea to reject the approach.
Seydi said: “Since last year, there have been two firm offers – Inter and Manchester City, who offered me a golden deal.
“I was okay, so was Didier, but Chelsea’s directors did say ‘no’. They refused an £18million transfer plus a 30-year-old player.”
