Chelsea PodJockey David Chidgey looks at the one man who has seemingly been at the centre of all United's woes this summer and cannot wait for him and Sir Alex to lock horns next season.

Over the last 10 years or so Sir Alex Ferguson has perfected the art of psychological warfare when it comes to football management. In what the Australian cricketers would call mental disintegration, Fergie has used mind and word games to undermine competitors and rivals at every opportunity. The result of these tactics were clear for all to see when Kevin Keegan "loved it" while losing it, and then the title race to Fergie in 1996.

Fergie's monopoly on psychological warfare was briefly interrupted by the Special One - Jose Mourinho who loved a bit of a dabble with the Psychobabble!! He certainly matched Fergie and seemed to have the edge over Wenger whilst he graced us with his presence.

But, having removed the ‘managerial legend' that was Average Grant as the revisionists would have it, Chelsea now have a real heavyweight (and dare I say Big Hitter!!) in Big Phil Scolari. It could be argued that Big Phil has already won a few battles in the psychological war with Fergie. Whether these are deliberate ploys by the Big man are of course moot, but look at Man Utd's off-season to date.

Most of the summer has been dominated by the trials and tribulations of the poor ‘slave boy' Cristiano Ronaldo. Like the girls in the old Silvikrin adverts, "will he or won't he"? He clearly wants out from Utd to join his boyhood dream team of Real Madrid. His petulance, greed, ego and selfishness clearly know no bounds. Now whilst Fergie and David Gill have played a very straight bat to all the controversy, and in many respects have garnered much support in their refusal to let Ronaldo and Real get their way, how much has this unsettled their pre-season preparations? What is the effect on Ronaldo's team mates? How can they replace a player like Ronaldo? I know how depressed the Man Utd fans are when considering these scenarios.

Big Phil's part in all this? Well, we'll never really know, but I bet most Chelsea fans are thinking that he really was encouraging Ronaldo to spit out his dummy and demand a move to Real whilst he was playing for him during Euro 2008.

Second item for consideration: Carlos Queiroz leaving Man Utd to take up the role of Portugal coach. A role of course that only became available with Big Phil's departure to Chelsea. For all we know, Big Phil was in the ear of the Portuguese FA strongly recommending that Queiroz should be his successor. Now whilst Utd might be publically unconcerned about the departure of Fergie's number 2, consider the impact that he had on Utd's leaky defence during his tenure. Obviously something that Fergie knows less about than banging goals in with style, Utd averaged about 45 goals conceded in the Premiership before Queiroz stemmed the flow to around an average of 25. He will be missed far more than Fergie is prepared to let on, and particularly during pre-season.

Thirdly, the rejuvenating effect Scolari has had within the Chelsea ranks is clear. Players who were muttering about leaving seem prepared to commit to the new regime (ok, Frank Lampard accepted). Chelsea have made two classy international signings in Bosingwa and Deco, with at least one more high profile one on the way. Dead weight is being cut off - Sidwell and Ben Haim for starters. Utd on the other hand have signed no one of any note, albeit talk of Berbatov joining. Just what they need, another moody, mercurial foreigner who sulks and throws his toys out of the pram.

But worst of all for Utd, Audi have withdrawn their car sponsorship of the club meaning that the Utd players have had to return their nice shiny Audis. This was one crisis too far for Fergie, who apparently was so attached to his Audi that he pleaded to keep it. Audi only relenting by insisting that he had to become an Audi Ambassador!!

Now, if you see Big Phil driving a nice flashy Audi, we know we have a conspiracy theory on our hands and another psychological point to Big Phil and Chelsea. I for one can't wait for the new season to get under way, but more pertinently to see how the psychological war between Fergie and Big Phil ensues.

We're back with another podcast this Sunday when no doubt we'll be discussing the impact that Big Phil can and will have on Chelsea, as well as having a look at Chelsea's pre-season fixtures in China, Malaysia and Russia. And while we're at it, some of our Facebook group are clearly miffed by the fact that Chelsea don't play pre-season friendlies in England anymore, so no doubt we'll be canvassing opinion on that too. Look out for the next Chelsea FanCast next Monday.