Petrescu recalls painful fall-out with Vialli

FORMER Chelsea midfielder Dan Petrescu has lifted the lid on his painful fall-out with Gianluca Vialli that led to him being forced to leave the Blues.

Petrescu revealed how his friendship with Vialli broke down after the Italian forward became manager in 1998, just as his relations with other former team-mates seemed to sour.

The turning-point for Petrescu came when he and Gustavo Poyet were left on the bench for the club's Champions League quarter-final second leg away to Barcelona in April 2000.

He was so angry that, when he was picked against Manchester United six days later, he even failed to celebrate his goal and was blamed by Vialli for his side's ensuing defeat. The Romanian never played for Chelsea again, being sold to Bradford for £800,000 that summer, and he regrets that his five years at Stamford Bridge came to such a bitter end.

''Every season, Vialli told me I wouldn't play and I always stayed to fight for my place. But it went on for two or three years and it was the end for me at Chelsea as I couldn't have another year like that,'' he revealed.

''I couldn't understand it. When he was a player, we were really good friends like he was friends with everyone. But when he became manager, I don't think he had a good relationship with everybody.''

Relations reached breaking-point when Petrescu was axed from the side in the Nou Camp. He said: ''I had played 15 games in the Champions League but not to play in the big one without an explanation really hurt me. I was waiting for him to tell me why but he didn't.''