Drogba determined to stay a true Blue

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The striker, back to his best form under new interim coach Guus Hiddink, is determined to remain at Stamford Bridge and wants to sign a new deal when his current contract ends next summer.

Drogba said: "Because of my knee problems and what happened with the manager, I really want to make it clear again that I'm staying here."

He added: "I have worked really hard in training but the good thing is I have had the support of the players and people like Ray Wilkins."

In the meantime, an agent claiming to represent Drogba, Thierno Seydi, says Scolari was axed by the club because of a personality clash with the striker. Scolari was sacked three weeks ago amid allegations that the club's owner Roman Abramovich had met Drogba, goalkeeper Petr Cech and midfielder Michael Ballack at the club's Cobham training ground.

Drogba strenuously denies having anything to do with Scolari's departure and a club spokesman said on Thursday: "The comments made are totally ill-informed and are not worthy of a response beyond that."

However, Seydi claimed: "The fact that he was told to sit on the bench had nothing to do with sport, it was just a problem between two men that couldn't work together.

"One had to go and Chelsea decided to part ways with Scolari. They literally said that Didier made history at the club, that he could still bring a lot to the team, so they decided to let the coach go and to keep Didier."

Seydi also revealed just how keen Chelsea have been to keep the striker who joined the Blues for £24million from Marseille in 2004. He claimed the Blues had already turned down £18million bids from Inter Milan and Manchester City.

"Since last year, there have been two firm offers: Inter and Manchester City, who offered me a golden deal," Seydi told Senegal newspaper L'Observateur. "I was quite ready for it, Didier also, but the Chelsea board said 'no'. They turned down 20 million euros for a 30-year-old."