Zola says goodbye with tale of what might have been

GIANFRANCO ZOLA was at Stamford Bridge yesterday to say his farewells to Chelsea staff. But he said he would still be a Blues player had the club made their increased contract offer just 48 hours earlier.

On Wednesday he rejected an increased pay-packet from Chelsea, financed by Abramovich's takeover the night before, and moved home to

Sardinia. And yesterday Zola, 37, disclosed he would have taken up the offer had it come before his contract expired the previous day.

That was the day he had enough of delays over his possible 12-month contract extension and told Cagliari he would join them.

Zola, speaking at a specially-arranged press conference, was asked if he would have stayed had he received an improved offer before July 1.

Zola replied: "Yes. I wasn't thinking of leaving and had put all my offers on standby. But the renewal of my contract went on and on until July 1, when my contract expired.

"Then I had to do something. I couldn't keep the other people waiting as that would have been disrespectful to them. So I decided to go. Chelsea made me a better offer on July 2, when the transaction between the old owners and the new owners happened. They came to me with a better offer and that gave me a really bad couple of hours. But, unfortunately, it was too late. It wouldn't have been correct to take it, because Cagliari had followed me for such a long time.

"The renewal of my contract happened at a bad, bad moment. Chelsea were in a bad situation and we couldn't make an agreement. But I'm not putting any blame on Chelsea as they had so many more important things going on than renewing my contract."

Zola made 312 appearances in seven years for the west London club, scoring 80 goals and finding a special place in the hearts of Chelsea fans.

He is back in England to say farewell to his Blues team-mates, boss Claudio Ranieri, club staff and friends.

Zola also told how he almost joined Napoli in summer 2000.

"One of the most important people for me at Chelsea was (former chief executive) Colin Hutchinson," he said.

"Three years ago, I was about to leave and he said I had to stay. Without Colin, I'd have gone. I was very close to going to Napoli. We'd just won our second FA Cup but my situation was uncertain and not clear.

"It was a family matter as well but we decided to carry on with the adventure here."