Posts Tagged ‘Peter Kenyon’

Arnesen sets sights on £40m Agüero deal

• Negotiations first test of Arnesen’s ability in transfer market
• Chelsea keen to make signing ahead of Gaël Kakuta hearing

Chelsea’s pursuit of Atlético Madrid’s Sergio Agüero is being driven by the club’s director of football, Frank Arnesen, in what represents the first major test of his ability to operate in the transfer market since he assumed responsibility for senior player recruitment following the departure of the club’s chief executive, Peter Kenyon, last month.

Although Atlético have in place a €60m (around £57m) buy-out clause in Agüero’s contract it is understood that they may well accept around £40m for the 21-year-old. That amount would represent a £7.5m increase on the British record £32.5m Manchester City paid to Real Madrid for Robinho last season.

Although Arnesen will be under instructions from Chelsea’s owner, Roman Abramovich, to try and close the deal for less than £40m, Madrid will tell the Dane that this sum represents the minimum they would accept.

The pressure on Arnesen, who joined Chelsea from Tottenham in 2005, to secure Agüero’s signing in the January window will be increased due to the transfer embargo which was applied by Fifa over the Gaël Kakuta affair before being paused, pending appeal, by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The ban could well be upheld in March when the case will be decided. If so that could prevent Chelsea from making any new signings for the following two windows, meaning Carlo Ancelotti would be unable to add to his squad until the summer of 2011.

Agüero’s prospective move from Atlético is complicated by the Spanish club’s challenging internal politics, which are dominated by Enrique Cerezo, the president, and general manager, Miguel Angel Gil Marín.

Cerezo, who despite being president owns less of Atlético than Gil Marín, wants to keep Agüero. Gil Marín, meanwhile, believes the club should cash in on their prime asset. Yet while Gil Marín’s greater shareholding means he has the prospective veto over any decision, it is Cerezo who invests the greater finance.

Agüero has also been told by Diego Maradona, his national team coach and father-in-law, to leave the club to enhance his prospects of becoming first-choice for Argentina at next summer’s World Cup.

Meanwhile, the Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien is one of three Ghana players who will be “investigated” by the national association for failing to travel with the national team for a friendly against Angola.

A statement by the Ghana FA general secretary Kofi Nsiah said: “Unfortunately three players – Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari and Asamoah Gyan – did not travel with the team to Angola on Monday night for the Angola friendly. The players stayed out without the permission of the head coach, Milovan Rajevac. The FA views this act with great concern and will investigate the matter further to inform its next course of action. The FA will take action after concluding investigations following the failure of above mentioned players to secure the consent of the head coach.”

Chelsea reinvigorated by Carlo’s way

Just when Chelsea’s power appeared to be waning, Carlo Ancelotti has restored the invincible aura of old.

Chelsea must appear to Manchester United as a Terminator rolling out from under a blazing oil tanker, shoving an eye back in and remounting its Harley Davidson with shotgun primed. The old aura of power and indestructibility is returning.

The Premier League leaders were ordered by their new chief executive last week to “shoot for the stars”. But Roman Abramovich had to pay the stars first. Huge new contracts have been awarded to the team’s glitterati to fuel the resurgence United face in London today.

The big push is on at Stamford Bridge. Abramovich’s inner circle of long-servers can glimpse the end of their Chelsea days and a core of diehards have been financially doped to restore the club’s hegemony, which ended with the second of José Mourinho’s Premier League title wins in 2006. Peter Kenyon’s promise to “turn the world blue” seemed all the more laughable as the English landscape went back to red.

In the past 12 months big new deals and contract extensions have been dished out to Frank Lampard, John Terry, Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole, Florent Malouda, Alex and even Salomon Kalou. Joe Cole, 28 today, is next on Abramovich’s list of men-who-must-be-encouraged. The Russian owner tired of being fleeced in the international transfer market. To end a three-year run with only a couple of FA Cups to show for his £150m annual wage bill, the oligarch turned back to the strength within.

“With the new contracts the club wants to maintain this squad and think of the future. To have a very good atmosphere – this was important,” Ancelotti says. “Joe Cole wants to stay here and we want to keep him. There will not be a problem with his future.”

The fruit of forking out these fidelity premiums has been 14 wins in 17 matches in all competitions, a smooth Champions League progression, leadership of the domestic title race and 17 goals with none conceded in four outings before the 2-2 midweek draw at Atlético Madrid. As with all things in the English game, there is a risk of over-statement. The victims in the recent 4-0, 5-0, 4-0 and 4-0 thrashings were Bolton (twice), a disintegrating Atlético and Blackburn. Errant defending at set plays were at the root of two Premier League away defeats, at Wigan and Aston Villa.

But the sense of renewal is palpable. Chelsea’s players, remember, can see that Liverpool are diminished, Arsenal raw and United currently below their symphonic best. Drogba, who signed for an extra two years in August, is unstoppable, with 12 goals in 13 matches. Ancelotti’s midfield diamond has unleashed the defence-trashing power of Drogba and Nicolas Anelka and rendered the side more expressive. These are feats that were beyond Luiz Felipe Scolari, Abramovich’s original choice to wipe away the greyness of the Avram Grant era.

On Friday came another victory: the suspension of the club’s transfer ban, courtesy of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which allows Chelsea to stockpile new talent in January in case the Fifa penalty is eventually enforced. Ancelotti, though, says reinforcements are “not necessary”, despite the impending loss of four players for six to eight games in January for the Africa Cup of Nations. Here, Abramovich is reaping the harvest of hiring a manager who is accustomed to coaching the players he already has. In Serie A, incoming coaches seldom start with the obligatory English declaration about transfer war chests.

“I think he [Ancelotti] has done a really good job quickly and he is helped because he has had experienced players round him,” says Sir Alex Ferguson. “They can understand a change of tactics better than younger players. If you look at Ballack and Deco, they come from places where tactics are more of an issue. Anelka and Drogba have played abroad so it’s not surprising they have adapted.

“It’s the same as how he operated in Milan, with the difference being that at Milan he had Kaká. That made a hell of a difference to what he was able to do at Milan and the point I would make is that Chelsea are still looking for someone in a forward role to balance their team better. They have tried Lampard there, they have tried Deco there, they have even tried Malouda there and now they have brought in Joe Cole. But they have the experience to cope.”

Recently, Ancelotti defined his tactical thinking: “I prefer to play with two strikers and one midfielder behind the strikers. These [Chelsea] players can play in this system, with a diamond in midfield.” Liberation was Scolari’s aim, too, but the players rejected the culture shock of being bounced into a Brazilian/Portuguese style, with a lone striker, and insufficient attention to defensive drills.

At Chelsea’s Cobham training ground on Friday, a faintly tense Ancelotti waved away the theory that his side are now more entertaining than United. “Exciting play arrives because you can use players with quality. We can use those players but so can Manchester United. I don’t think we are playing the more exciting football.”

Yet Chelsea are outscoring their northern foe and can move five points clear in the table if they extend their record of not losing to United at Stamford Bridge in nine games stretching back to 2002. The muscularity and relentlessness of the Chelsea midfield has been one of United’s toughest obstacles and has encouraged Ferguson to set-up more cautiously against Lampard, Ballack and Essien for fear of being swamped. Ancelotti insists that Arsenal will play a hand in this title race, but already the debate is about whether United can maintain their narrow superiority over Arsène Wenger’s neighbours.

The return of Joe Cole, to the tip of ‘Carletto’s’ diamond, revives the cliche of an influential player returning with the glow of a new acquisition. “I trust in his quality. He’s a very good runner and he’s dynamic,” Ancelotti says. “His return is very important for the club. The same is true of Paulo Ferreira. For that reason I say we don’t need other players.”

Yet the age profile of United’s opponents this afternoon encourages urgency in a team of Champions League nearly men. For three consecutive seasons, Chelsea have chased home Ferguson’s men in domestic combat, finishing second, second and third. Lampard is 31, Michael Ballack 33, Anelka 30, Drogba 31, Deco 32, Carvalho 31. Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, Florent Malouda and Terry are all in the golden 28-29 range. Essien, at 26, is the pup.

At Milan, Ancelotti presided over a gerontocracy, so he can hardly be expected to agree that time is running out for the team Mourinho mostly built. He says: “Terry is a young player, Lampard is a young player, so is Ashley Cole. When a player is 30-years-old he is in the centre of his career. Ten years ago he was an old player. Not now. With the new physical training and other things 30-years-old is the best moment of your career.”

But this ignores the reality that United and Arsenal are more adept at self-renewal. The youth programmes of those institutions shame Chelsea’s poor record of feeding homegrown players into the first XI. Their transfer ban stemmed from the over-zealous pursuit of Gaël Kakuta, a gifted youngster from France who was the club’s Scholar of the Year last season and has earned glowing reviews. As the Terry-Lampard generation continue to feast on Abramovich’s largesse, there has been panic further down the age line, as the owner’s entourage grapple with the latest loss (£65.7m) and seek the mythical break-even moment in a business that has paid £23.1m in compensation to sacked coaches, and returns 70% of its turnover to the players.

There was further evidence of this corporate unease when Kenyon’s successor, Ron Gourlay, announced that naming rights to Stamford Bride were up for grabs. “Our sponsorship architecture” was Gourlay’s novel phrase to describe this part of the business plan. “Maybe you won’t see as much brashness going forward [now that Kenyon has gone],” Gourlay said, and then proceeded to pick out two Champions League titles in five years as a realistic target. “That may sound aggressive, but I think we can do it.”

These Orwellian pronouncements never sound good from people with attaché cases, and there remains a risk that this brand of thinking will infect the playing side. Joe Cole seemed to have caught the bug in midweek when saying: “Chelsea are building a genuine claim to be as big as the Manchester Uniteds, the Real Madrids, the Milans, but you have to win trophies.”

The revival started not with Ancelotti but Guus Hiddink, who, in his five months, understood the team’s core strengths and saw that not too much was wrong with his best 20 players. According to Ferguson, Ancelotti will not feel Mourinho’s shadow, as Grant and Scolari did. “I don’t think Carlo is worried about that at all; he has his own CV. It is impressive, he has won two European Cups and the Scudetto and how many European medals has he got? His European pedigree is unquestionable.”

To most eyes today’s collision is a battle of the two best teams in the land, and therefore a synopsis of the fight to win this year’s Premier League. Mourinho’s Chelsea “raised the bar” between 2004 and 2006, Ferguson said at the time, and now United’s pre-eminence is again under assault from a team stabilised by Hiddink and Ancelotti and spurred on by lavish contract extensions.

The task was never to buy a new winning machine but to recalibrate the one that lost perhaps 10% of its effectiveness when Grant and Scolari were playing with the levers. If Chelsea are a team that runs itself, as many believe, the leaders appear remotivated to leave behind the agonies of the Champions League final penalty shoot-out defeat to United in Moscow and the injustice of last season’s semi-final loss to Barcelona, in which they almost tamed one of the best club sides ever assembled.

They always had the power, now they just need the glory back.

Ancelotti: I’ll give Chelsea a new identity

• Chelsea manager unconcerned by off-field turmoil
• Insists that his side will improve by “keeping our faith”

When Carlo Ancelotti looks forward to a derby, as he will today for the visit of Tottenham Hotspur to Stamford Bridge, he admits that he has a recurring nightmare. The Chelsea manager was a 20-year-old midfielder for Roma when he first felt the heat and hostility of such occasions, and one part of the experience has remained uncomfortably vivid.

“I have very bad memories,” the Italian says. “Because in my first derby, against Lazio in 1979, there was the death of a supporter. It was brutal.”

Vincenzo Paparelli was a 33-year-old Lazio fan. He suffered fatal injuries when a rocket fired by Roma ultras from the Olympic Stadium’s Curva Sud hit him in the eye. His wife attempted to pull out the iron tube but, with the flare still burning, she simply hurt her hand.

Ancelotti is a stranger to London derbies – upon his arrival at Chelsea in July, he had to ask his players to fill him in on the identity of their fiercest capital city rivals; the unanimous response was Tottenham – but he knows that nothing can compare to the malevolence of Roma v Lazio matches. Ancelotti described the Milan derby, in which he played and managed against Inter, as passionate but, mercifully, free of “danger and violence”.

Ancelotti is an unflappable character. He remarks that the game in England is more intense than it is in Italy, but he says he has not felt “nervous” in the dugout. Nor, he adds, has he grown angry with his players. “I sit very quietly because I feel a very good sensation with them.” It is only when he refers to Paparelli that his language becomes impassioned.

He shrugs off the recent off-the-field turmoil at Stamford Bridge – the club has been banned from the next two transfer windows for making illegal inducements to the young winger Gaël Kakuta and, in a separate development, Peter Kenyon has stood down as the chief executive.

“These things are not a problem,” Ancelotti says. “They have not influenced the team or the players, absolutely not. The players don’t have a problem because it’s not our question. We have to think about winning matches.”

Ancelotti’s team have won all his six games so far, yet their progress has seen them slip under the radar to some extent. As the other members of the big four have already hit both highs and lows, and Manchester City and even Tottenham have demanded attention, Chelsea, give or take the last-minute winners against Hull and Stoke, have rolled on serenely.

Since José Mourinho constructed a squad heavy on physical and mental power, Chelsea have perfected the art of grinding down opponents. Has much changed under Ancelotti? The steely cool of his character appears to be reflected by his team.

When Roman Abramovich had grown frustrated with Chelsea’s style of play at the end of the 2007-08 season, the club’s owner told Ancelotti that they did not “have a personality”. “This is a team that, at the moment, I don’t recognise,” Abramovich added. Ancelotti was acutely aware that Abramovich was “looking for a team with a precise identity, like Manchester United, Liverpool, Milan, certainly not like my Chelsea”.

Yet two and a half months into his reign, Ancelotti believes that he is answering Abramovich’s demand. “I think that in the matches so far, the team has shown a precise identity, in terms of the precision of their play,” he says.

Mawhinney to stand down as chairman

• Mawhinney must stand down in the year of his 70th birthday
• League may split role into chief executive and chairman

Brian Mawhinney could soon fire the starting gun on the race to succeed him as Football League chairman after confirming that he will vacate the role by the end of next season.

Lord Mawhinney is 70 next July and under Football League regulations must make way for a new candidate at the League’s annual meeting in 2011. Similar restrictions apply at the Football Association, where directors must step down at the AGM following their 70th birthday. In the Premier League the rules are more restrictive, requiring chairmen to quit on that date.

Mawhinney admits he has yet to make any decision as to the exact timing of his departure but has not ruled out leaving at the end of this season.

“I have no intention other than not to transgress the laws of the League, which I have spent so long upholding,” Mawhinney said. “I have sought guidance and the rules say people should not be on the board beyond 70, and in custom and practice that’s interpreted as being that you shouldn’t serve beyond the term of the session in progress when you attain that age. I have to leave the board by July 2011.”

Mawhinney has already spent almost eight years as the League’s executive chairman, a broad role that ensures he will be difficult to replace. Indeed there may be some constitutional upheaval if the League decides to split the role into two, with a separate chief executive and chairman.

There is bound to be a period of politicking from potential candidates such as Ipswich Town’s long-serving FA board member, David Sheepshanks, or the All England Club chief executive and Wembley director, Ian Ritchie. It might also interest Peter Kenyon, who said this week he has “one challenge left” after stepping down as Chelsea’s chief  executive.

England tie-up for players

England players’ contractual obligations with the Football Association’s sponsors have finally been agreed after eight years. The FA’s commercial director, Jonathan Hill, before announcing his departure this month, thrashed out the terms of the agreement with Terry Burn, the chairman of 1966, the firm representing the players’ interests.

The two parties had been operating under a brief heads-of-terms agreement which lacked the watertight obligations of a contract. Sources say one will soon be in place after both sides’ lawyers finalise the details. This will be a relief to the FA as it seeks to replace partners such as the FA Cup sponsor, E.On.

Matters came to a head in 2006 when the agents of Wayne Rooney, right, gave notice he would withdraw his co-operation from FA marketing activities after the governing body suspended him for three Premier League games after he was sent off in a pre‑season friendly. Under the terms of the new agreement there would be recourse against players refusing to co‑operate with sponsors’ activities.

Valley handed a top-up

Charlton are expected to announce a much needed boost to their finances. Eighteen months ago The Valley club tapped directors for almost £15m in an effort to repay other director loans, a large overdraft and to offer the club some working capital. But losses remain unsustainable and a continuing need for external financing has become clear. Fortunately with the club having wealthy fans such as the millionaire philanthropist Sir Maurice Hatter and the club chairman, Richard Murray, that has been possible.

ITV camera crowds action

An ITV cameraman was yesterday ejected from the Tour of Britain after getting too close to the peloton. He should consider himself fortunate: at last year’s Tour de France a too cosy Flemish TV cameraman was head‑butted by Cadel Evans.

Quest finally gets its man

Among those most relieved at Renault’s decision to jettison their team principal, Flavio Briatore, and chief engineer, Pat Symonds, is John Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner. His company, Quest, was engaged by the FIA to investigate the events at last year’s Singapore grand prix and the evidence it uncovered was central to Renault’s decision. These were high-profile scalps at last for Lord Stevens, whose inquiry into football corruption for the Premier League was eventually kicked into the long grass by the football authorities.

Kevin McCarra: Gourlay must find Chelsea’s soul

Ron Gourlay, Chelsea’s replacement for Peter Kenyon, has to deal with the club’s dearth of personality since the José Mourinho publicity machine left

Chelsea have developed a taste for understatement. The confirmation that Ron Gourlay is taking the step up from chief operating officer to chief executive carries no glitz. When his predecessor Peter Kenyon decided to leave Manchester United so that he could start work with Chelsea early in 2004 there was, by contrast, a rancour and fascination that never quite vanished.

Everyone seemed to hold a grievance, from the United supporters who thought he was a City fan to Chelsea spectators who could not forget he had come from Old Trafford. Kenyon and chief executives in general have received undue emphasis. Individuals with great gifts might bring about some sort of transformation but most are prisoners of circumstance.

Kenyon came into that category. He negotiated a sponsorship deal with Samsung that was worth around £11m a year to Chelsea until 2010. United were getting some £14m a year from AIG. Chelsea then achieved better terms from Samsung for an extension to 2013 but the figure almost certainly falls short of the £20m a year that United can reportedly expect when their deal with their new sponsors, Aon, starts in 2010.

That level of funding owes much to the magnetism of a club with so rich a history. A chief executive cannot deliver that single-handed and it is no coincidence that Kenyon’s fortunes with Chelsea were at their peak in the early days of José Mourinho, before the ceaseless controversies under the Portuguese appeared to exhaust Roman Abramovich.

Since the results on the field matter so much a chief executive supplies the voice of the club only when a manager lacks the status or track record to get a proper hearing. The well-regarded David Gill, to his certain relief, does not have to go hoarse at Old Trafford since Sir Alex Ferguson’s words always take precedence. The same is true of Arsenal, where Ivan Gazidis can go about his business in full confidence that Arsène Wenger is in command of the communications that truly matter to fans.

Chelsea have been lacking that type of voice. Guus Hiddink did have the presence to make people listen but he was around only in a caretaker capacity. It does look as if there is a rebalancing of Chelsea, with the focus on the game itself now that the sporting director, Frank Arnesen, has been deemed worthy of an enhanced role. Abramovich, with that promotion, has at least chosen to stress that football games are the core of the club’s being.

Arnesen, however, is unlikely to be addressing the public very often. Abramovich himself prefers to be mute and Eugene Tenenbaum, the director regarded as his representative, is unlikely to speak out either. The manager, Carlo Ancelotti, in view of the language barrier, will not be holding forth and, following his eight years at Milan under the demagogue Silvio Berlusconi, he is unlikely to become a figurehead now.

Chelsea still lack the identity they had when Mourinho’s hopes, quirks and outbursts filled the club with personality.