Report By Harry Pratt CHELSEA'S build-up to tomorrow's Cup-Winners' Cup final hit a snag yesterday as Dutch goalkeeper Eddie De Goey and Norwegian striker Tore Andre Flo warned they could leave the club in protest at the rotation system that sees them both regularly warm the substitutes' bench. Since the sacking of Ruud Gullit, neither has featured regularly under new player/coach Gianluca Vialli although both were always going to be on the plane that jetted off to Stockholm, where the Blues will face Germans VfB Stuttgart tomorrow. De Goey is particularly annoyed that he has had to stand down in favour of fit-again Russian Dmitri Kharin for every Premiership fixture bar Sunday's win over Bolton and claimed that he needed more match practice before Chelsea's most important game in years. He said: I've just had to accept I'm not playing. I've been training hard to make sure I'm fit and sharp for the final. It's about being physically and mentally on the ball because this is the biggest game of the season. It's very difficult because I have missed a lot of matches and that means I don't have the rhythm I would like. But what makes it even more difficult is that I haven't been talking with defenders week-in, week-out in match situations and that's a very important part of the game for a goalkeeper. Flo, the star of Chelsea's quarter-final first leg win at Real Betis, is equally discontented with the squad system. The lanky 20-year-old has lately found himself down the pecking order behind Vialli and that other ageing warrior Mark Hughes. And with the old heads in fine form prolific by their standards it seems unlikely that the Norwegian will make anything more than a cameo appearance in Sweden. He will accept that this time round but not if the problem remains next season. Still odds on to make the World Cup despite his intermittent appearances at Stamford Bridge, Flo confessed: "It's hard when you don't to see your name on the team sheet and you can't help but expect to see it if you've played a good game the previous week. I am a patient sort of guy and I've accepted it for the first year but I wouldn't like to sit on the bench for two years. I have my international place to think about and it won't help my prospects if I'm playing less and less every year. I must say though that even when I'm not playing I've been able to learn from watching the other players. I have things to learn in every area and in that respect I can pick things up from every striker at the club. There was some good news for De Goey yesterday when he discovered his international future was safe after he was picked for Holland's France 98 challenge. But the Glasgow Rangers target added: I had a conversation with my international manager about the situation at Chelsea and he was not happy. I explained it to him after we had played Vicenza and he accepted it. I want to stay at the club but I will have to take in the final and see what happens after that.

ZOLA WINNING FINAL FITNESS FIGHT   Gianfranco Zola is winning his fight for Cup-Winners' Cup Final fitness less than a week after virtually being written off by boss Gianluca Vialli. Chelsea's Sardinian assassin feared he would be forced to sit on the sidelines in Sweden when he damaged his groin against Liverpool two weeks ago. He was even sent back to Italy for specialist treatment and that has paid off as what was no more than an outsider's chance moved a lot nearer reality yesterday as he came though his first training session since sustaining the problem. If Zola has no reaction to that workout and ones today and tomorrow in Stockholm, he seems certain to play against Stuttgart despite Vialli stating last week he needed a game before the final. What is not a surprise is the tiny Italian's prediction that he will be ready. "It seems to be okay now," he said. "The injury has improved a lot in the last few days and now I'm a lot more confident I will be fit. We'll have to see what happens over the next couple of days when I'm training harder." That positive bulletin was only the start of several good medical reports on Chelsea's walking wounded. Also on course for a clean bill of health just in the nick of time nothing to do with the fact their League season is over, of course are Graeme Le Saux (calf) and Michael Duberry (abcess). Dennis Wise's display in his 45 minutes against Bolton on Sunday is another bonus but Nigerian Celestine Babayaro (toe) is still ruled out despite the Nigerian, missing since December, insisting he will make the World Cup. Frank Sinclair (calf) is almost certainly out, however. Vialli, meanwhile, is doing his best to maintain some suspense over his line-up in Stockholm though attempts to raise doubts over his own participation hardly required a doctorate in cryptography. The player-boss scored two on Sunday, has cracked six in this season's Cup-Winners' Cup and must surely be worthy of a place. "I might play," a grinning Vialli said yesterday before adding: "I would like to play. But between now and Wednesday I have to work out if it might be better for me to be on the bench."

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