Cash row opens the exit door for Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka

The futures of Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka in China should be resolved in the next fortnight after the chairman of Shanghai Shenhua made a final demand to his co-owners.

Zhu Jun is threatening to withdraw his funding unless he is given more control of the club by the end of the month.

Without the billionaire’s money, Shanghai would be unable to pay their two former Chelsea stars, with Drogba on £250,000 a week and Anelka on £200,000.

Drogba scored in a 3-0 win over Liaoning Whowin on Saturday and after the game Shenhua head coach Sergio Batista claimed said the row had been “basically resolved”.

However, Zhu went on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, to contradict that claim and warn that he had had enough.

“Now, I made a difficult decision to believe you one more time, one last time! And this time I have a deadline: two weeks,” Zhu wrote.