Shevchenko and the sad years at Chelsea (Part 2)

In the Champions League, Chelsea was eliminated from Barca in the eighth round, in two rounds where Mourinho was helpless to see the home team besieged from beginning to end. The journey to conquer the League Cup and FA Cup respectively ended early against Charlton (round 3) and Liverpool (semi-finals).

These failures forced Mourinho to change his playing style. He will have to come up with a new strategy and needs new people. Another striker, to pair with Didier Drogba, is considered a vital piece.

The options available at the club at the time were not suitable. Hernan Crespo, playing well with 13 goals at the end of the season, wants to return to Italy. Eidur Gudjohnsen has been a major contributor to the club since 2000, but his relationship with Mourinho has broken. Young potential player Cole Cole is too young, so he was loaned to West Ham.

Mourinho just submitted to the board a short list of five names. An internal Chelsea source told The Athletic : “These numbers have illustrious names, Samuel Eto’o of Barca is one of them. At the bottom of this list is Shevchenko, and maybe Mourinho only entered his name. “We enter for political reasons. Mourinho knows that among Abramovich players who want to invite to Chelsea, Shevchenko is the most wanted boss.”

But Mourinho probably did not expect Abramovich to disregard the remaining four names on the list, breaking the transfer record of the English Premier League for Sheva. On May 31, 2006, Shevchenko signed a four-year contract with Chelsea, with a huge salary of 115,000 pounds / week (about 145,000 USD / week). Mourinho also know what to say in this situation? He had to try to please the boss: “Today, my dream came true. Andriy has always been my number one choice for striker ever since I arrived. He has great quality, have ambition, discipline and a great tactical sense. “

But Sheva could not solve Mourinho’s problem, only brought him new headaches. Among the stars Abramovich has brought to Chelsea since his acquisition of the club, Sheva is the only player who has not come as an employee of the Russian billionaire. Sheva is a friend. Or above all, Sheva is the one Abramovich admires.