Emotional Drogba confirms his departureLONDON – Didier Drogba has confirmed he will leave Chelsea this summer but Fernando Torres will not be following his fellow striker out of the club despite the Champions League winners’ hierarchy having been left distinctly unimpressed by the timing of the Spaniard’s publicly expressed frustration at life as a bit-part player at Stamford Bridge.
Emotional Drogba confirms his departureLONDON – Didier Drogba has confirmed he will leave Chelsea this summer but Fernando Torres will not be following his fellow striker out of the club despite the Champions League winners’ hierarchy having been left distinctly unimpressed by the timing of the Spaniard’s publicly expressed frustration at life as a bit-part player at Stamford Bridge.Drogba is expected to join the money-flushed Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua, who could offer wages of up to £250,000 a week, after telling France Football magazine that he broke down when telling his team-mates that he will be moving on.The 34-year-old said he did not "envisage sitting on the bench watching others play at a time when the club is looking at putting together a new team” – and it appears this fresh Chelsea will have room for Torres, who within hours of the European Cup triumph voiced exasperation at playing second fiddle to Drogba.The Spaniard claimed starting on the substitutes’ bench that night represented "perhaps the biggest disappointment of my life” and called for clarity from the club’s management as to what role he is to play in the future. No meeting is planned with either Torres, who has since departed for a holiday on Ibiza ahead of linking up with the Spain squad, or his representative, though there was dismay among club officials that such a high-profile player should potentially sour the otherwise buoyant mood.Torres’s comments, delivered in the mixed zone at the Allianz Arena as the players departed the stadium still digesting their victory, came with Drogba’s eight-year spell at Chelsea drawing to a close. The Ivorian’s contract will expire next month and he told France Football: "We [he and his team-mates] will not be together next season,” he said. "As I have decided to leave, I wanted to tell them to their faces.