There is no doubt that the presence of Ghana's international star Michael in Chelsea has won a lot of support from Ghanaians for the West London Club. In certain parts of the country it was real mourning when Chelsea lost the European Cup to Manchester United.

A large number of Ghanaian football fans have grown to love Chelsea so much that when word got round that former Chelsea Coach Jose Mourinho now with Inter Milan plans to snatch Essien to Italy they took it with a pinch of salt.

A random survey conducted in the capital of Ghana, Accra shows that most fans would like Essien to remain in Chelsea because he has really made his mark in the team. "He is a real champion and we don’t want him to lose his glamour like what happened to Arsenal’s Thierry Henry in his move to Barcelona where he became so ordinary” said Samuel Inkoom of Accra New Town.

A tiny minority who think he must leave are not too pleased with the way club owner Abramovich treat his managers. “He sacked Mourinho without any tangible reasons and look at how he treated Avram Grant who only narrowly missed two huge trophies”said Emml Ansah of Osu in Accra.

A British football analyst has described Abramovich as treating Chelsea like one of his businesses in Russia. “This is not about metal, oil and gas, its people he is dealing with and he is being totally ruthless” said the analyst.

The analyst feels Avram Grant was sacked unfairly and the fear is that this could happen to any of the players.

At his first press conference since taking over Inter Milan. Mourinho did not name the players he intends poaching from Chelsea. It is good that the flamboyant Mourinho for once wants to keep his cards close to his chest and no names have been mentioned yet. It is the prayer of Ghanaian football fans that he will continue to shut up so that Essien will have peace to concentrate on the numerous national assignments for the Black Stars.