Mourinho issues Sheva ultimatum

JOSE MOURINHO has challenged Andriy Shevchenko to prove he can be a hit in the Premiership next season.

The Ukrainian striker will miss Saturday’s FA Cup final following a hernia operation but the £30 million record buy has failed to adapt to the rigours of English football.

The former AC Milan hitman has looked unable to cope with the physical demands of the English game and Mourinho admitted Shevchenko has to decide whether he can overcome a poor first season at Stamford Bridge.

Mourinho said: “It is up to him. Hopefully he is not happy. I hope he is not happy with what he gave to his team. If he is not happy it is a good start.”

When asked if he expected Shevchenko to be a Chelsea player at the start of next season, Mourinho replied: “He is a Chelsea player and he has a contract. If he is not happy and he wants to try everything to improve, of course. Sheva’s season was not what everyone was thinking, including myself. In his defence he has a history of many years in a completely different culture. That can be on his side.”

The contrast between the ill-fated Shevchenko and the Golden Boot winner Didier Drogba could not be more marked.

After a season when Chelsea surrendered the Barclays Premiership title to United and lost out in the Champions League for the second time in three years to Liverpool, Mourinho admits he made a mistake in allowing defenders William Gallas and Robert Huth to quit the club.

Gallas left for Arsenal in a deal which brought Ashley Cole to the club while Huth was fed up of playing second fiddle to captain John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho and opted to move to Middlesbrough.

Mourinho replaced both with the ineffective Khalid Boulahrouz and it cost them dear when Terry and Carvalho collected injuries in the campaign.

But the Portuguese coach is determined Chelsea will not pay big money to land the players they want with Reading’s Steven Sidwell the first target.