Jose Mourinho has hinted he will stay at Chelsea after making his peace with striker Andriy Shevchenko.
Steve Griffiths
LONDON: Jose Mourinho has hinted he will stay at Chelsea after making his peace with striker Andriy Shevchenko.
The English champions' Portuguese manager said his desire to stay put had persuaded captain John Terry to sign a new Chelsea contract.
Shevchenko was back in Mourinho's good books after his double strike against Wycombe clinched a place in next month's all-London club League Cup final against either Tottenham or Arsenal.
The Ukrainian had been frozen out by Mourinho after failing to live up to his 30 million pounds price tag.
But he went some way to redeeming himself as he celebrated his recall with two clinical finishes and an assist for the first of Frank Lampard's two goals in the 4-0 semi-final second leg victory here Tuesday.
Shevchenko's two-goal salvo clinched a 5-1 aggregate win and led to a glowing tribute from Mourinho.
The Blues boss insisted he had never fallen out with Shevchenko and admitted the forward was finally beginning to adapt to Chelsea's style of play.
"Sometimes you need to kiss a player and sometimes you kick them. It is what I do with every player. It doesn't matter if you cost 30 million pounds or 300,000 pounds," Mourinho told reporters after Tuesday's victory.
"Sheva needed some time to adapt but if he can do what he did today with his sharpness and movement then he is arriving at where we want him to be.
"One of the principles of my work is the players that work more and perform better game after game will be in the team.
"I'm very happy Sheva got the message. If somebody thought I did not play him because of a personal situation then he is a very silly sod.
"At this moment he has won the right to play on Sunday. If he has the same performance then he will play again on Wednesday. It is as simple as that. "It is a process. You cannot open a player's head and put the philosophy inside.
"He has come from seven years at another club (Italy's AC Milan), so when he comes to a different club with players who know what makes me happy it is not easy."
Shevchenko added: "I'm very happy to get to the final. It is very important. I've had unbelievable support from the team and fans."
Mourinho's long-running dispute with Chelsea's Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich over the west London club's failure to sanction the signing of new players during the January transfer window had fuelled speculation that the former Porto manager would be lured away by either Real Madrid or AC Milan.
But he indicated he had persuaded England skipper Terry to sign a new contract worth 150,000 pounds per week by assuring the centre-half he plans to be at Chelsea next season.
Mourinho said: "He asked me if I was staying and my answer was I think so.
"JT has told me it is very difficult to play for another manager and he would like to play with me until the end of his career. It is because he accepts my philosophy and he is comfortable with it."
Wycombe manager Paul Lambert admitted his side from League Two, the fourth tier of English football, had no answer to Shevchenko after holding Chelsea to a shock 1-1 draw in the first leg at Adams Park.
"He is a top class player and they are a top class team," said Lambert.
"I couldn't ask any more from my players but once they got in front it was always going to be hard for us. We can hold our heads high."
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