Peter Kenyon has raised the temperature before Chelsea’s mouthwatering clash with Manchester United on Sunday by revealing the champions’ intention to leave their rivals trailing in their wake, both on and off the field. Kenyon, the United chief executive before walking out to take up a similar post at Stamford Bridge in 2003, praised his former club’s heritage yesterday but insisted that Chelsea will dominate in the future, spelling out their plan to become the world’s biggest club by 2014.
Kenyon’s comments will ruffle feathers at Old Trafford, where feelings of resentment towards him run deep, before the biggest game of the domestic season so far. He was made to go on five months’ gardening leave by United before taking up his present post.
Chelsea fans may also take umbrage at his description of the club before Roman Abramovich as “a fairly soulless place”. He was humble enough to admit the various obstacles in their path, however, such as the 42,000 capacity that is likely to force them to leave Stamford Bridge. “Chelsea as a football club and a brand is more dynamic, more relevant,” Kenyon, asked to compare the champions with United, said. “They are fundamentally different. Manchester United was built around heritage, whether that was the Busby Babes, 1958 and Munich, winning the European Cup in 1968 or the Fergie [Sir Alex Ferguson] years. Their record of eight Premiership titles, two doubles and the treble in 1999 has set the benchmark for every English club.
“Chelsea’s success was sporadic and we did not have the depth of heritage to pull back on. We’re probably expected to do things that bit different and that’s part of the DNA of Chelsea. We’re based in one of the top three cities in the world, which is another difference from Manchester.
“That’s not a criticism of United, it’s in the context of where we differ. Chelsea didn’t have a tragedy, didn’t have ten years of unbelievable success in the Sixties, which culminated in winning the European Cup, and then the Fergie years. It was a fairly soulless place, so it was about starting again.”
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Abramovich’s takeover has led to a revolution off the pitch as well as on it, Chelsea’s revenue increasing from £90.5 million to £149.1 million in the past three years and domestic fan-base quadrupling to almost four million. Having topped the Deloitte Football Money League for eight of the past nine years, United still lead on both counts and Kenyon admits that there is much to do.
“By 2014 we want to be internationally recognised as the No 1 club,” he said. “Our revenue has grown dramatically and is now on a par with United. It’s a very ballsy vision but one that has captured the interest of the owner.”
Chelsea’s biggest problem is maintaining their identity while increasing match-day capacity, with access problems preventing development at Stamford Bridge. The club have rejected vacant sites around Earls Court and Battersea Power Station as too small and turned down an option on the Olympic stadium, with Kenyon still searching for land within southwest London.
“A really big part of Chelsea is its location,” he said. “We would like to have 55,000 but it’s got to be within this area. I think it’s pretty clear we can’t get to where we want to here. We have said we would like the stadium to be bigger, but that’s not going to be at the expense of moving to Brussels or Milton Keynes.”