Former Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas is convinced he was undermined by the senior player clique at the club.

Now back in Portugal, Villas-Boas's strong suspicion is that several players spoke out against him directly to Roman Abramovich after the 3-1 Champions League first-leg defeat against Napoli last month, says the Guardian.

AVB left Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole out of a team already missing the injured John Terry.

As part of the payoff, an agreement will be in place that Villas-Boas does not discuss publicly the dressing-room secrets from his time at the London club. In particular Chelsea do not want him to reveal the deterioration in his relationship with senior players such as Lampard and Cole, which had suffered to the point where the atmosphere at the training ground was openly mutinous at times.