Money was a side issue in the coup d'etat which brought down Ruud Gullit as manager at Chelsea. The act of regicide - or perhaps reggae-cide - was planned up to a month ago as the board at Stamford Bridge lined up Gianluca Vialli as Gullit's replacement.

Reliable sources connected with the club say Gullit's demand for a huge salary increase simply provided the board with an excuse to act against an employee they felt they could no longer control. At an absorbing two-hour press conference yesterday Gullit himself suggested that he had been forced out of Stamford Bridge by an elaborate conspiracy. "They had everything planned behind my back," he said.

There were many theories about why an anti-Gullit movement should have developed but one authoritative source suggests that Gullit's assistant Gwyn Williams and coach Graham Rix had become insecure about their own futures and were pressing the board to force Gullit to come to a decision over his unsigned contract. Rix is said to have known three weeks ago that Gullit would be sacked.

Much credence is also lent to the theory that a small cabal of senior, mostly foreign players were on the point of rebelling against Gullit's dictatorial methods and rotating squad system, and that the Chelsea chairman Ken Bates was determined to stop him becoming too powerful. In short, Gullit had become too big for Bates to handle and Vialli was seen as a more malleable successor with equally strong connections in the European transfer market.

There are also dark mutterings about Williams and Rix having to do most of the work in coaching and preparing the team as Gullit became increasingly aloof. Yesterday Gullit assembled the full force of his own managerial team from the agency First Artiste as his answers were broadcast live on Sky News in the style of some great political drama.

Gullit has begun to believe that his removal had been planned long before it was announced. He had been trying to sign Brian Laudrup from Rangers and said yesterday: "Zola and Vialli met up with Laudrup (in London) on Wednesday. The player was surprised. What I've heard is that Laudrup asked where I was and was told `he's busy doing other things'." Zola and Roberto Di Matteo, Chelsea's third illustrious Italian, recently signed new contracts.

Gullit's account was in direct conflict with the club's managing director Colin Hutchinson, who said there was "nothing sinister" about Vialli and Zola meeting Laudrup. "Chelsea didn't even want to negotiate with me, they didn't even make me an offer," Gullit said. "I asked for £2 million. If they'd made me an offer I would have accepted it. That's how negotiations work. You give a bit and lose a bit. I had already made my negotiating position weak by telling them I wanted to stay at Chelsea. The money is not the real reason. It's the stick they wanted to hit me with."

This account supports the theory that it was not greed which brought him down. David Mellor, though, claimed that Gullit had asked for "a truly horrific sum of money", while Hutchinson went on Clubcall to claim that Gullit had actually demanded £3.2 million gross, which equates to £2 m net. Mellor is a close ally of Bates.

Gullit was always versatile on the pitch, and at the International Sportsman's Club in London was impressive in attack and defence. He needed to swing the pendulum of public opinion back towards him and succeeded by flattering the media, players and fans, while attacking those who had fired him. "I'm very disappointed that I didn't hear it from Chelsea first and I'm disappointed that it happened behind my back.

"I gave this club a lot and my relationship with the players was okay. The rotational system was unusual, but it worked. I was always in contact with my players. If Zola isn't playing well and I drop him then you have to go to (Cesare) Maldini also and ask him why he dropped Zola. I've been treated very badly after all I've done for the club."

For Ruud Gullit, left feeling "a little empty", there could be one final indignity. Chelsea still hold his player's registration until the end of June. First they sacked him. Now, in theory, they could sell him, too.