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.

Shenhua are owned by Zhu and five state-run enterprises and he wants his share increased from 28.5 per cent to 70 per cent.

The state-backed Shanghai Youth Daily newspaper today quoted an unnamed source as saying: “If this issue is not resolved satisfactorily, from October Zhu Jun might take action. If the issue of Drogba’s salary is still not effectively handled, he might again book a ticket home.”

If the club have to release Drogba and Anelka it would pave the way for a return to the Premier League.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger last week denied he was interested in Drogba but Liverpool might be given that they are short up front after allowing Andy Carroll to join West Ham on loan.