Didier Drogba in Bother over Autobiography?

Well, Didier Drogba just wouldn’t be Didier Drogba unless his mouth was causing controversy. This time it’s the Ivorian international’s autobiography that’s under scrutiny rather than his triple-salko.

After a season in which I’ve seen more life in a tramp's vest, culminating in a Champions League final in which my nan’s handbag would do more damage than anything Drogba had to offer, the Chelsea striker suggested he should have punched Nemanja Vidic. 

I suppose, the way he sees it, he might as well have been hung for a sheep than a lamb, but, unfortunately, the FA probably don’t have the same take on it.

In his book, the extracts from which will no doubt fill many column inches in the coming days, Drogba writes: "I have seen the match on video and I believe I should not have been sent off with three minutes to go. If I had punched him, I would have understood. Now I wish I had."

All very professional, obviously, and apparently earning him major slaps on the back from some quarters. Personally, though, with memories of that night in Moscow refusing to go away, I’ve no more desire to defend him now than I did then, and I certainly haven’t gotten to a point where his sending off, and our team's subsequent defeat on penalties, makes me laugh.

So, anyway, the boys at the FA, who won’t be impressed by the comments, are going to have a look and decide whether anything he has said brings the game into disrepute. An FA spokesman stated they are "aware of the comments and will be examining them in their proper context."

They won’t apparently be looking at the incident in the same way they viewed comments from Robbie Keane in 2002, when his autobiography—and the confession relating to Alf Inge Haaland’s injury—resulted in the Manchester United captain serving a five-game ban.

I think that’s fair enough, seeing as Drogba’s is all talk about what he wishes he’d done and the Keane incident actually happened, so the two aren’t comparable.

Whatever the FA decides (if he gets a ban, he’s got only himself to blame), the one thing Chelsea can be certain of is that they can work their arses off as hard as they like to turn their negative image around. But as long as players like Drogba are around, it’ll be an uphill battle.