German’s role in Scolari’s demise has been  greatly exaggerated

Anyone who picked up a copy of The Times this morning could be forgiven for thinking that Michael Ballack has been patting himself of the back after supposedly persuading Roman Abramovich that Luiz Felipe Scolari was the wrong man for the Chelsea job.

However, those suggestions appear to have been shot down by the German midfielder, who has today expressed sadness at Scolari’s dismissal as well as becoming the latest Chelsea player to toe the “it’s all our fault really” line.

The Times claimed “Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack and Petr Cech are known to have had doubts, telling Roman Abramovich, the owner, of their reservations at an informal meeting last Thursday to which Terry was not party.” However, Ballack said:

“It is a shame because he had not been with us for a long time.

“Of course there was some criticism and we did not get the results we all would have wanted, but that is not the manager’s fault but the team’s.

“Something like this is always uncomfortable.”