Didier Drogba has been left out of the Chelsea squad to face Stoke City on Saturday, with Luiz Felipe Scolari having openly challenged the Ivorian, or any member of his squad, to leave the club if he is not fully committed to "fighting together" until the end of the season.
The Brazilian also admitted that he did not know what had happened to the spirt of his underperforming players and, while repeatedly thumping his chest, he declared that he only needed players with "heart" and a "love" for Chelsea.
It is thought that his remarks were largely aimed at Drogba, who was omitted f rom the squad that beat Southend 4-1 in the FA Cup on Wednesday because of both his "physical and mental" condition. He must prove in training that he is worth a recall to the team and, yesterday, he stayed on alone to practise his free-kicks.
Scolari said that it was time to "open this space" in Drogba's head and instil it with confidence. Any suggestion that Drogba had been victimised for the 3-0 defeat against Manchester United was also flatly rejected. "It is my job to choose 11 players, it's his job to play," he said. "I am the victim, I lost 3-0, me and the club. No one player is more of a victim than me and the club. He was left out [against Southend] because of all his conditions.
"We started training with him after Southend and we started to change his technical condition and his mind because sometimes arriving in front of goal he is not the same as before.
"Sometimes you put in your head something and it blocks. Now it's time to open this space in his head and give him more confidence and see what happens. It's not a negative effect to leave him out for just one game. I don't know if Didier Drogba doesn't want to play – I think he wants to play. This is the time for everyone to play as a group, as a spirit and as love to Chelsea or it's time to change club.
"We need to fight together until May 27. If no, now is the time to change. 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.
"I don't just mean Didier Drogba, I mean all my players. Against Southend we win not because we played fantastically but because we love. We are very well as a technical team, we are better than other teams. We have fantastic players but we need spirit every day, every week, every day, every hour."
As Scolari tried to explain what had happened to the spirit, he asked journalists whether they believed in the devil and then alluded to players having their heads turned by rumours of offers. "Now is the time, come and pay us but who came? Zero," he said.
Scolari also said that he would happily bring in younger replacements and he will include Mirsolav Stoch, Franco Di Santo, Lee Sawyer, Gael Kakuta and Jeffrey Bruma in his squad on Saturday.
He admitted, however, that he did not know whether Drogba would still be at the club next season. For now, there have been no offers and Chelsea would not consider selling unless they had a replacement.
There is also much debate about Scolari's defensive tactics and the Brazilian intends to use a combination of man-to-man and zonal marking for the challenge of Stoke, a club he describes as the "most dangerous in the world" from setpieces. In response to the suggestion that the players would prefer man-to-man marking, Scolari said: "They prefer what I decide. I am not a dictator, I am a democratic man, I listen. If something is better for my team, I change something. But I often stay up until 3am in the morning to look at videos, setpieces. If it is a mistake, it's my mistake."
Scolari is also awaiting an update on Joe Cole's knee injury, but fears being without the England midfielder for two months, meaning that he is almost certain to miss England's friendly against Spain next month.
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