Blues ace eyes 'big' time with Scolari

New coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is being tipped to lead Chelsea to success next season by striker Salomon Kalou.

The 22-year-old Ivory Coast international, who has left the Blues' Asian pre-season tour before it moved to Malaysia so he can link up with his country's Olympic squad in Hong Kong to prepare for the Beijing Games next month, has been impressed with the former Brazil and Portugal coach.

Kalou feels Scolari can take the club to the next level after they narrowly missed out on the Premier League and Champions League titles under Avram Grant last season.

"I have a very good impression of him," he said.

"He is a great trainer and I enjoy working with him and I believe we can do something big for Chelsea this year."

Kalou's involvement at the Olympics means he will miss the start of the Premier League campaign, but he is confident of forcing his way into Scolari's plans on his return to Stamford Bridge.

He added: "Playing competitive football will definitely help me for the new season as I am playing at a good level and I feel that when I arrive back in England I will be ready.

"The Olympics is something I have always wanted to play in.

"It is one of the biggest events of the year and if you see the names of players who are taking part you can see it is very important.

"I am starting to get used to the humidity now and I feel with some more training we will all be ready for the Olympics."