Jose Mourinho intends to drop Andriy Shevchenko from Chelsea's squad for the Premiership match with Wigan today in a direct challenge to Roman Abramovich to back him with new signings or sack him immediately.
Chelsea's manager has been prevented from recruiting the new striker he considers essential to the club's domestic and European campaigns and denied even minor funds to purchase a central defender to replace John Terry, whose return from back surgery is proving more problematic than expected.
Mourinho has also been infuriated by the club's attempt to dismiss Steve Clarke and replace his assistant with a Russian-speaking Israeli coach to help Shevchenko rediscover his form. Mourinho's response to the board was to request that rather than change his backroom staff, Chelsea's owner should tell Shevchenko "to do some work for once".
Abramovich's close friendship with his £30m summer signing appears set to cost Chelsea the services of the man who has won back-to-back titles in his two full seasons in England. Citing ineffective spending in previous transfer windows, the Russian and his advisers told Mourinho in a recent strategy meeting that under no circumstances would he be allowed to add a striker to the squad and instructed him to use Shevchenko properly.
An earlier attempt by the manager to swap Shaun Wright-Phillips plus cash for Jermain Defoe had been put to Tottenham only to be vetoed by the Chelsea hierarchy. A subsequent loan exchange of the England winger for Aston Villa's striker Milan Baros was also blocked, even though no expenditure would have been involved.
Mourinho has also been stopped from bringing in cover for Terry. Aware that the eight-figure fee needed to buy his preferred target, Manchester City's Micah Richards, would not be provided, the Portuguese proposed a series of low-cost alternatives. However, agreed deals for Oguchi Onyewu, a US international who had been in talks with Fulham and would have cost £1m, and the Portugal centre- back Jorge Andrade, available on loan from Deportivo La Coruña, were knocked back.
As an alternative, the club proposed bringing the Brazil international, Alex, to Stamford Bridge from PSV Eindhoven. The 24-year-old's sporting rights are already owned by Chelsea and he is a favourite of the club's senior scout, Frank Arnesen, but Mourinho does not rate Alex and refuses to have players imposed upon his squad.
Instead Mourinho has resolved to leave Shevchenko in the reserves, continue with the players available and await Abramovich's next move, aware that the Russian is considering paying off his £5.2m-a-year contract. Mourinho has also instructed his agent, Jorge Mendes, to field offers from interested parties, primarily Real Madrid, whose president Ramón Calderón would like to recruit both the coach and Frank Lampard as he prepares for re-election.
It is unclear how Abramovich will react to Shevchenko's deliberate relegation. Any attempt to force his coach to field the striker could push an already strained situation into meltdown.
The former European footballer of the year has scored only five goals in 29 appearances since joining from Milan last summer. He missed Wednesday's Carling Cup tie at Wycombe with what was described as a slight hamstring injury, forcing Lampard to be called up at the last minute. Mourinho's camp suspect the injury was contrived because the Ukrainian feared more negative publicity should he fail to score against a fourth-tier side.
Last night Chelsea issued a formal denial of reports that Mourinho had told a friend he was definitely leaving the club by the end of the season. Tellingly, the manager did not deny the story was correct.
"I love Chelsea for just 2½ years but I love Chelsea," said Mourinho. "I want to win always the next game and the next game is against Wigan. We have to be together to win that game and we have to forget the stories, we have to forget what the press is saying. It's easy for me. I'm self-motivated, always at the top. If results are not what we want, that is even a bigger motivation to fight."