Chelsea captain John Terry has dropped a strong hint that a revolt by some of the club's players triggered the dismisssal of Luiz Felipe Scolari. Although he insisted that he personally had been shocked by Scolari's sacking and described the Brazilian as a “great man”, Terry made it clear Tuesday that not all of the Chelsea squad were of the same opinion. Against a background of reports that Michael Ballack, Petr Cech and Didier Drogba had agitated for Scolari to be sacked, Terry pointedly stressed that he and a “few” other Chelsea stars had been behind the Brazilian. “I got the call yesterday afternoon and I was very shocked at the time and disappointed because myself and a few of the players at the club were fully behind the manager,” Terry told reporters, later putting the number of Scolari loyalists at just “two or three players.” Terry's comments will inevitably be interpreted as a sign of deep divisions within the Chelsea dressing room but the club captain said the entire squad had to accept that they had let down the man who guided Brazil to World Cup glory in 2002. Scolari was sacked on Monday after Chelsea slipped to fourth place in the English Premier League table, with no realistic chance of reclaiming the trophy. The club are now attempting to bring in Russia manager Guus Hiddink on a temporary basis until the end of the season. Hiddink said he was prepared to manage Chelsea for the rest of the season after receiving permission to combine the two jobs. In an exclusive interview with Reuters at the Russian squad's training camp, Hiddink said he had a special relationship with Chelsea's billionaire owner Roman Abramovich who had been paying his salary as Russia coach. “This is an exceptional situation. If it was any other club aside from Chelsea my answer would be a straight ‘no',” Hiddink said. “There's an old saying in football that any coach was hired to be fired ... that's the risks you take,” he said.
