Chelsea face a defensive crisis, with William Gallas failing to return to training after his post-World Cup holidays at a time when Wayne Bridge is seeking a transfer from the club.
The effect of the Premiership champions' acrimonious negotiations with Arsenal over the €30 million-plus purchase of Ashley Cole has now spilled over into the Chelsea dressingroom, where players are uneasy at their prospects for the season ahead.
Though Cole's expected arrival might seem to answer Gallas's objections to being shunted from central defence to left back, paradoxically that transfer would make it more likely to recur.
Bridge joined his team-mates at their training camp in the US last week, but he will seek to leave Chelsea once Cole's transfer is ratified and Gallas would again be left as the main cover for the first-choice left back, a situation he is clearly reluctant to tolerate any longer. He has responded by ignoring club orders.
The France centre half was due to join the Premiership champions on Monday, but instead informed chief executive Peter Kenyon that he was "tired" after the World Cup and wanted an extended break. He has informed Chelsea that he has a doctor's note to back his claims, but has yet to present this to his employer.
Claude Makelele has also not yet linked up with the team in Los Angeles, but the 33-year-old was granted a longer break because of his age; the 31-year-old Hernan Crespo was given similar dispensation. Gallas (28), has no such excuse and faces club disciplinary action.
Chelsea's anger at Gallas has reached a peak because they suspect that Arsenal may have tried to destabilise the player. The Gunners have requested that the World Cup finalist be included in any negotiations to take Cole to Stamford Bridge, which Chelsea have resisted.
Now, with Cole having failed to attend Arsenal's training session on Tuesday, citing a stomach bug, there are clear parallels between the two clubs involved in one of the most bad-tempered transfer deals in memory.
It is now unthinkable that Gallas will sign the four-year contract extension Chelsea have offered him - disappointing Jose Mourinho, who claimed he would have signed by last week - and he is expected to tell club officials of this when they meet in London on Friday.
Chelsea will seek to force Gallas to see out his contract. As Arsenal have discovered, such positions are difficult to maintain and, with the Community Shield against Liverpool 11 days away, Chelsea face the prospect of entering a season with scant back-up to John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho at centre half.
Chelsea are the victims of their own transfer-market success as Gallas's position reflects players' concerns at their first-team opportunities. It has also left the champions fuming that a key player could rebel so publicly at a time when they are trying to build team spirit in the US.
Mourinho had said before the crisis emerged that he believed the cohesion in his group to be the key to their recent success. "I don't believe it will be easy for other clubs to stop us because we are building a very strong football team and also a very strong family," he said.
At the same time, Mourinho has stoked his simmering feud with manager Rafael Benitez by dismissing Liverpool's title chances and style of play.
Terry had described Liverpool as the champions' closest challengers, but in the first salvo before the season Mourinho wrote off Liverpool as a defensive team.
"I believe Manchester United and Arsenal will, in spite of the fact Arsenal finished fourth and Liverpool third, still be the better teams," said Mourinho. "(Because of) the quality of their football, the way they play, the high quality in their squads.
"Liverpool are different. They are very competitive, it's very difficult to beat them. If they score a goal before you score it's very difficult to change it because they defend really well with 11 players - very compact. They are tactically very good. And they are potentially fighting for first place, but I still fancy more the way Arsenal and Manchester United play football."
