Today it seems as though Chelsea could look to Dump Sheva for David Villa of Valencia.

It should have been the deal of the century but right now it looks as though the highest paid player in the EPL could be at the end of the road. The rise of Andriy Shevchenko through the ranks of superstardom in England may be heading for a premature end, at least according to today’s Sun. They claim that Jose Mourinho is looking to replace the tired and tiring Ukrainian with Valencia’s David Villa during the January transfer window.

According to the English red-top (never the most trustworthy of organs at the best of times), the Spanish club have already turned down an initial 20 million euro approach, but it now seems that Abramovic and co are willing to up the ante to 30 million – a figure Valencia would find hard to ignore.

Sheva’s sad London hypothesis continues and it makes his transfer of nearly 31 million pounds ( 50 million euro) look like the worst piece of business ever carried out. Leaving behind Milan’s Curva Sud amid protests and wailings of ingratitude so that he could ‘bring his children up in an English speaking environment’, though it is sure that the exorbitant salary to be earned had quite a bit to do with that as well. One last attempt by the Rossoneri supporters to convince their idol to stay fell on deaf ears. His bags were, apparently, already packed.

The fairy tale has not continued though and in the Chelsea jersey, Shevchenko has managed a mere 3 goals in 14 games. “Roman Abramovich would have been better off spending the money on 2.729.808 bottles of vodka”, muses The Sun, though perhaps it would take a little more than that to forget the whole sorry episode.

Many had hoped that Sunday’s match at Old Trafford would have provided the springboard for Sheva but there was nothing doing - 75 minutes of very little followed by substitution. Is this really the end for Sheva at Chelsea?

Translated from la Repubbblica.it