SACKED CHELSEA manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has admitted he had no relationship with his players away from training and matches. In an interview with France Football magazine, given before he was sacked by the Stamford Bridge club on Monday, the Brazilian gives an insight to his brief reign in West London.

Reports of dressingroom unrest blighted the World Cup-winning coach’s time with the club, and Scolari has admitted he was not close to his squad.

He said: “There are egos in the dressingroom, but that is normal, isn’t it? We all have egos. But my relationships with the players are good on the pitch. It is true they are not the same as the relationships I had with my players in Portugal, but I spent five years there. In Brazil (as a club manager) it was also easier.

“I knew everything about the players. Here, I don’t have a family relation with the players. Everything is on the pitch. Outside, there is nothing.”

Scolari also felt the club were missing a creative force who could unlock opposition defences, with Chelsea’s summer move for Robinho hijacked at the last minute in the summer by Manchester City. He said: “At Chelsea we don’t have the player who can make the difference by himself by producing something magical on the pitch. We miss that. I don’t know why. In the past (Arjen) Robben was at Chelsea and he could make the difference. But now there is no one. Robinho could have been this player.

“He is not afraid to dribble, to take a risk, As a Brazilian, I like this.

“My team isn’t Brazilian enough. It is a ‘bureaucratic’ team. That’s the style of my players. That’s why Robinho would have done a lot of good for the team.”

Scolari went on to explain why he left striker Didier Drogba out of his starting XI even when he regained fitness after injury, and suggested that France winger Florent Malouda was also well below his best form. He added: “Drogba lacks a lot of confidence at the moment. After two or three big injuries, he is missing something. Drogba doesn’t have enough confidence, so I choose (Nicolas) Anelka.

“Malouda, at Chelsea, isn’t the Malouda from Lyon. He is okay, but he isn’t the same that he was with Lyon. He doesn’t make the difference in games any longer.”

Scolari bemoaned a lack of “magic” in the team.

Under Scolari, Chelsea began the season in a free-scoring mode, but the goals soon dried up and they could only manage four goals in the Brazilian’s last five games and his side were booed off after Scolari’s final game in charge - a drab 0-0 draw with Hull City last Saturday.

Scolari gave the interview with the magazine days before the Hull game.

Meanwhile, West Ham midfielder Scott Parker has signed a new contract which commits him to the Upton Park club until the summer of 2013.

The England midfielder, who put pen to paper on the new deal this afternoon, told he club’s official website, www.whufc.co.uk: “I am very happy, pleased and excited - especially after all the speculation in the transfer window – that I can now put that to rest and sign a new long-term contract.”

The French soccer federation (FFF) has submitted an application to host the 2016 European championships, the authority said in a statement yesterday. “The (federation’s) Federal council has confirmed France has applied to organise Euro 2016,” the FFF said.

National federations have until March 9th to apply to European governing body Uefa over the hosting rights for the 2016 tournament.

France previously hosted the European championships in 1984 and also held the World Cup in 1998, tournaments they both won.

The to-ing and fro-ing over David Beckham’s request for a permanent move to AC Milan was heading for a resolution last night with Major League Soccer (MLS) in talks with Los Angeles Galaxy.

Beckham, who joined the Galaxy in 2007, is on loan to Milan and has expressed his desire to stay in Serie A in a bid to play one more World Cup with England in South Africa next year.

Earlier this week, MLS commissioner Don Garber gave the Galaxy a deadline for yesterday to settle the issue and Milan, according to local media, made a final offer for the England midfielder late on Thursday. “We are still waiting to hear if a time has been set by Don Garber for today’s potential David Beckham transfer deadline,” Dan Courtemanche, senior vice-president of marketing and communications for MLS, said. “Commissioner Garber is in discussions with Galaxy owner AEG and the organisation’s president Tim Leiweke.”

In a letter to Leiweke this week, Garber said any agreement between the clubs would be supported if the matter was finalised by yesterday.