It was reported last week that Michael Ballack was among the leaders of a renegade group at Chelsea that met with the club's owner, Roman Abramovich, to plead for the sacking of manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.

The German denied these rumours before heading off on international duty, but he has returned to London to find that he is still being cited as one of the key contributors to Scolari's departure.

I couldn't believe this, Ballack said in The Times. I was surprised when I heard about it in Germany as I always had a lot of good words about Scolari.

The former Bayern Munich star did, however, confess that he sought discussions with with Abramovich, along with fellow rebels Petr Cech and Didier Drogba.

But Ballack stressed, Meetings are normal in a club. If people speak with each other, even if you don't have the success you want, it has happened before. It's not just this week. It happened with other coaches.

It's normal Abramovich comes in the dressing-room and speaks with players. It's not easy, not nice to sack somebody. This was in the papers, but is definitely not true.