Luiz Felipe Scolari says Nicolas Anelka got him the sack at Chelsea by refusing to play on the wing
Former Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari says Nicolas Anelka got him the sack at Stamford Bridge - by refusing to play on the wing.
The Brazilian was axed by the Blues in February 2009 after less than a year in charge with reports suggesting his struggles to speak fluent English were to blame.
But Scolari has poured water on those claims - instead laying the blame at the door of former Arsenal and Liverpool striker Anelka.
When Didier Drogba returned from injury, Scolari says he met with his forwards and explained that one of them would have to play from the wing, and that's when things started to go wrong.
"I had Anelka playing up front. Nine. Top scorer in the league," Scolari told ESPN Brazil.
"The players return, I make a meeting, and in the meeting I say: 'Look, now that the players have all returned, Drogba is back after two months, we will try to work a situation involving the two attackers playing one by the side, one in the centre, changing positions'.
"Then Anelka, the leagueโs top scorer, said: 'I do not play on the wing'. Well, thatโs when I said: 'You donโt play on the wing, oneโs going to be on the left, itโs over, Iโm not going to stay here arguing with you guys'.
"I left there and our team was third in the league, three or four points behind top. Qualified for the round-of-16 or quarter-finals of the Champions League. But there was this bad environment, that situation.
"I donโt know if I had continued, what would have happened. But it was interrupted. There, I got upset.
"Theyโll say: 'Oh, because you didnโt speak English perfectly'. Of course, I did not. I didnโt speak English perfectly. But I understood perfectly.
"We understood, with my English, and the English that was spoken there, we understood perfectly."
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/luiz-felipe-scolari-says-nicolas-11735843