<DIV class=M2FullAHeadline>WHEN BLUE TRIBES GO TO WAR</DIV><DIV class=M2FullAByline>Martin Lipton Chief Football Writer</DIV><P class=add-linkout align=left nd="1">ONCE they were friends who enjoyed the fruits of victory together. Now Jose Mourinho and Roman Abramovich are bitter enemies.<P class=add-linkout align=left><SPAN class=linkout-replaced nd="2">And it is only Peter Kenyon who is preventing the two men tearing each other, and Chelsea, to pieces.</SPAN><P class=add-linkout align=left nd="3">The rift between manager Mourinho and club owner Abramovich now seems "irreparable" - summing up the chaos that threatens to destabilise the champions completely.<P class=add-linkout><DIV class=center id=mpuad style="DISPLAY: inline"><DIV class=M2MpuAdvertisement id=mpuadheader style="DISPLAY: block">Advertisement</DIV><DIV class=center><SCRIPT language=javascript type=text/javascript>//<![CDATA[document.write('<scr' + 'ipt language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/dailymirror.4240/sport_mpu_centre_300x250;sz=300x250;pos=centre;sec t=football;psect=sport;zone=sport;templ=page;tile= 3;ord='+dartOrd+'?"><\/scr' + 'ipt>');//]]></SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=javascript src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/dailymirror.4240/sport_mpu_centre_300x250;sz=300x250;pos=centre;sec t=football;psect=sport;zone=sport;templ=page;tile= 3;ord=8851689482264852000?" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT>
<NOSCRIPT>
</NOSCRIPT></DIV></DIV><P class=add-linkout align=left nd="4">And when a summit meeting between the two men ended with the owner turning his back on Mourinho and walking out of the room in a blind fury, there was nothing even chief executive Kenyon could do to bring them back together.<P class=add-linkout><P class=add-linkout align=left nd="5">Unsurprisingly, the man at the heart of the row was Abramovich's pet project, £30million flop Andriy Shevchenko, on whom Mourinho has effectively given up.<P class=add-linkout><P class=add-linkout align=left nd="6">But the Shevchenko issue is just one element in the split as recent poor results have brought all the old enmities, grudges and misunderstandings rising to the surface.<P class=add-linkout><P class=add-linkout align=left nd="7">It has left Mourinho, his backroom staff and the players pitted head-on against the Russian money men, the Ukrainian striker and sporting director Frank Arnesen, with Kenyon left trying to broker a fragile peace treaty.<P class=add-linkout><P class=add-linkout align=left nd="8">Yet with neither Mourinho nor Abramovich in the mood to back down, the only question seems to be the date on which the Portuguese will cut his links with Stamford Bridge.<P class=add-linkout><P class=add-linkout align=left nd="9">The seeds for the latest dispute were sown when Kenyon, Mourinho and Abramovich held a strategy meeting before

Comment