Lille attacker Salomon Kalou feels Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich's sack policy has proven to be correct. Kalou saw eight managers come and go at Chelsea before leaving for Lille in the summer, and was part of two famous dressing-room ­rollickings dished out by Abramovich.

"As a Chelsea player, you have to take responsibility, and it's the role of the owner to remind everyone the only boss is him," said Kalou, whose last game for the Blues was the Champions League final victory over Bayern Munich.

"The owner used to remind us very well and it worked every time.

"He came twice to tell us. Once in Carlo Ancelotti's time and we won the Double, and he came again after Andre Villas-Boas was sacked, and we won the ­Champions League.

"The owner always brought the best manager and players to the club, and he helped everyone to win something.

"That's the only thing that matters ­because at the end of the day I look at Chelsea and say 'I won everything'.

"I won whatever a player could expect to win, so that experience was the best of my career and any other player would dream of having that.

"If you see the results, it is positive that the owner is involved. He has the idea 'I want to run this club, I want things to work'. He wanted to win the Champions League and then he won it, so it was worth it, doing all that.

"It was difficult for players to every time change manager, but we could adapt to the situation because we were ­together for a long time and we knew each other well.

"Maybe if the owner backed off it won't work any more, because when you invest in some ideas you really want them to work.

"Sometimes you have to remind people 'I'm the one in charge'.

"It's important ­because people forget and think 'Oh Chelsea have been here for a long time, we don't have to work hard, we will just play'.

"It's important for someone to ­remind the players 'You have been here a long time, but I can change the team any time I want so you better get back to the pitch and do the job right'. The Chelsea players are not scared of the owner. But he doesn't talk a lot, so when he does you listen. I like Roman as a person. He was very reserved and quiet and loved being around his players.

"He was excited around the training ground and some of the players have a special relationship with him. He always made sure whatever we needed we had it, and you cannot ask more from an owner than what he did for us."