Scolari claims Nicolas Anelka got him the sack at Chelsea

Former Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari has claimed that Nicolas Anelka got him the sack at Stamford Bridge for refusing to play on the wing.

The two-time Brazil coach was axed by the Blues in February 2009 after less than a year in charge at the club, with reports at the time suggesting that his struggles to speak fluent English were to blame.

But Scolari has looked to dispel those rumours, instead putting the blame on the shoulders of former Arsenal and Manchester City forward Anelka.

Scolari claimed that he met with his forwards in anticipation of Didier Drogba’s return from injury, where he explained that one of them would have to play out wide, and that is where things began to go wrong.

Talking to ESPN Brazil, Scolari said;

“I had Anelka playing up front. Nine. Top scorer in the league.”

“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 league’s top scorer, said: ‘I do not play on the wing’. Well, that’s when I said: ‘You don’t play on the wing, one’s going to be on the left, it’s over, I’m not going to stay here arguing with you guys’.”

“And there began a series of other things. 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 don’t know if I had continued, what would have happened. But it was interrupted. There, I got upset.”

“They’ll say: ‘Oh, because you didn’t speak English perfectly’. Of course, I did not. I didn’t speak English perfectly. But I understood perfectly.”

“We understood, with my English, and the English that was spoken there, we understood perfectly.”

Since leaving Chelsea, Scolari has held a number of managerial positions, including one in Ukraine with Bunyodkor, two in Brazil with Palmeiras and Grêmio and a second spell as Brazil national coach. His most recent job was with Chinese Super League side Guangzhou Evergrande. - Read Sports