Berlusconi claims Shevchenko wants Italian return

Chelsea’s £30m record-buy Andriy Shevchenko would like to return to AC Milan according to the club’s president Silvio Berlusconi but Jose Mourinho is sure to block any move from the Italians.

Shevchenko scored for the second time in a week in Chelsea’s 4-0 drubbing of woeful Watford at Stamford Bridge while Didier Drogba was a hat-trick hero again.

The Ukraine international has struggled to adapt to life in the Barclays Premiership but there are signs his partnership with the Ivory Coast hitman is beginning to bear fruit.

Berlusconi insists the 30-year-old, who has only struck five goals in 15 appearances for the champions, has told him he would like to return to Italy.

Berlusconi said: “I’ve heard from him recently. He called me and it gave me a big pleasure.

“I was with many other people and they all clapped him and naturally a chorus started – ’Sheva, return with us’. He answered that he would like it a lot,” Berlusconi told Sky Italia.

However, Mourinho is unlikely to entertain the idea of allowing the striker to return and claims his strikeforce are now beginning to get a perfect understanding at last.

Chelsea smashed four goals for the second time in as many games against Watford with Drogba grabbing his second treble of the season and his first in the Premiership.

The hat-trick took his tally for the season to 14 and brought high praise from Mourinho who labelled him ‘the best in the world’ on current form.

Mourinho’s assessment was backed by skipper John Terry who had an easy afternoon against Watford’s shot-shy strikers.

Drogba signed a new four-year contract last seek and Terry said: “Congratulations to Didier on signing his new contract. He’s the best striker in the world at the moment.”

But what pleased Mourinho more is the way Shevchenko and Drogba combined for their second and third goals against the Hornets.

It handed the Portuguese coach further proof that the pair can work together as Shevchenko set-up Drogba for the second and the Ivory Coast striker returned the favour in the second half.

Mourinho said: “It is important we keep working on this. It is important they understand the qualities of each other.

“For example for the third goal, Didier won the ball in the air and Sheva has to know that he can win that ball because of his power and he has to move in relation to that.

“At the same time when Sheva has the ball at his fee, Didier has to know that Sheva has the quality to assist and to see the space.”

Mourinho also confirmed that goalkeeper Magnus Hedman is almost certain to join the club until the end of the season as further cover while Petr Cech recovers from his skull injury.

The Sweden international, 33, is without a club and has been on trial with the champions.

Mourinho said: “You can only have a player who’s a free agent and I cannot find a better goalkeeper than him.

“He’s been out of football for quite a long time, so he’s not ready to give a fight to Carlo (Cudicini) and Hilario yet.

“But I was happy with personality, technical quality, with his enthusiasm to go back to the game so probably we will give him a contract to the end of the season.”

Meanwhile, Watford’s England under-21 international Ashley Young has called for the side to show its real character after their biggest defeat of the season at Stamford Bridge.

Young said: “We wanted to start brightly and we should’ve done better. We’ve got to make sure we bounce back with some character at Portsmouth next week.

“We created a few chances but we know we’ve got to take them against teams like Chelsea, because once they get the first goal they can dictate the game.

“It’s difficult to chase a game against a team of this quality but for us it’s about the reaction now and we have to show we have character.”