The Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho took an oblique sideswipe at the buying policy of his predecessor yesterday, saying that the club will do more research before they enter the transfer market in future following Adrian Mutu's dramatic fall from grace.
Mourinho said that Chelsea had made a mistake in signing the Romanian striker, bought by Claudio Ranieri from Parma for £15.8m last year.
The 25-year-old is facing a lengthy ban after testing positive for cocaine and claimed he came close to hitting Mourinho a few weeks ago as their relationship turned sour.
Mourinho said: "Mutu was here before me, so it was not my mistake, but even for the people who bought him, in football two plus two is sometimes not four. When you spend big money with the players you cannot bet. You don't know if they will enjoy it, if the family will adapt or if his family situation is good.
"But you have to try to know. You must be sure about what you are buying. You cannot follow them 16 hours a day but you can tell in training. When you see them committed and strong, for sure his life outside football is good. But when a player is tired, finding it hard to concentrate and with a change of humour that sees him happy one day and another quiet and lonely, this is when you put a question mark against him."
Mourinho, who was reported to have asked for Mutu to be tested in the first place, said football has a responsibility to clamp down on both recreational and performance-enhancing drug use. "When people in society see top sports people involved in social drugs, it's a very bad message to the world and all our kids. I am always a defender of the control, fight and punishment against it."
Chelsea will give the Dutch winger Arjen Robben his debut at home to Blackburn today after three months out with an ankle injury.
The Newcastle United chairman Freddy Shepherd yesterday sought to draw a line under the Craig Bellamy-Graeme Souness fall-out and confirmed the player would not be put up for sale.
There were suggestions that the situation between Souness and Bellamy was irreconcilable and that Bellamy would be offloaded in the transfer window but Shepherd said Bellamy's public apology on Thursday had been accepted by Souness as sincere.
"The only person who can make Craig Bellamy leave Newcastle United is Craig Bellamy himself," said Shepherd.
"I think in him we have a great player and we want him to stay with us. But he probably went over the line with what has happened this week and he has done the right thing in apologising to the manager."
Shepherd's benevolent attitude to Bellamy contrasts with last season, when he was prepared to sell the volatile Welshman and told him so to his face. One more lapse, such as occurred at Charlton last Sunday, and Shepherd may change his mind again.
Laurent Robert seems to have heeded a warning by Souness that Newcastle's players must generate headlines only with their performances on the pitch.
Robert has caused a stir several times with comments he has made since his arrival at St James' Park in 2001 but has promised there will be no repeat, closing his sometimes controversial website as part of the process. He wants to establish himself in Souness's first XI after starting at Panionios on Thursday.
"I think I played well and obeyed the manager's instructions," he said. "I deserve to play against Manchester City [tomorrow] but, if I don't, I will be upset but there will be no tantrums. This is the new Laurent Robert. I closed my website and it will stay shut. I want people to see a lot more of me and hear a lot less ... The new Laurent Robert will do his talking on the pitch."
