Chelsea have destroyed me complains Mutu

Disgraced Romanian striker Adrian Mutu, who blasted Premiership side Chelsea for their haste in sacking him after testing positive for a banned substance.

Disgraced Romanian striker Adrian Mutu blasted Premiership side Chelsea for their haste in sacking him after testing positive for a banned substance.

Chelsea terminated the forward's contract with immediate effect after he tested positive for cocaine and now Mutu, 25, faces a Football Association (FA) ban that could keep him out of English football for two years.

"Chelsea have destroyed me - I don't know what I am going to do. I am shocked and surprised by their decision," Mutu told the Sunday Mirror.

"I didn't expect them to pay me while I was suspended but I never thought they would sack me either.

"Why didn't they wait to do this? Now my career is in ruins.

"I might as well walk away from football. What is there left for me?"

Chelsea have come in for strong criticism from the Professional Footballers' Association, whose chief executive Gordon Taylor accused the club of target-testing Mutu "with a view to getting rid of him" and insisted they had a "duty of care" to aid the striker in his rehabilitation.

Those sentiments were echoed by the player himself, who feels the club should have at least waited until the FA had sentenced him.

Mutu added: "It is unfair. If they were going to sack me they should have done it afterwards. Why did they go public? To make an example of me? It makes it very difficult for me now."

However, Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon insisted the London club - who sacked Australian goalkeeper Mark Bosnich for a similar offence - had no alternative but to dismiss Mutu.

Kenyon insisted the player had turned down their offers of help and lied to his employers.

Rejecting Taylor's claims that the club had been uncaring, Kenyon told BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek programme: "We fully buy into and are very supportive of awareness programmes, education and welfare.

"On this occasion, the same support was there for Adrian Mutu. He chose to ignore it, lie and as a consequence of that the rules are quite simple.

"To suggest there was no support and we left him out to dry because we wanted to get rid of him is absolute rubbish.

"We could have taken a decision in the summer to move Adrian Mutu out and get a transfer fee for him but we embraced him and wanted him to be part of our squad.

"The player has a role to play in this, if they don't want to be helped, it is a two-way process."