Kenyon's building a Bridge to success

It is an exhausting schedule, but then if Kenyon's master-plan of making Chelsea profitable in five years and the number one internationally recognised club in ten years' time is to work, he has to put in the air miles right now.

It has been just under two years since Kenyon started working at Chelsea after leaving Old Trafford and he is confident that his ambitions are firmly on track.

"I can remember from the very first conversation I had with Roman Abramovich before I joined the club, I asked him if he wanted to buy success or build success, and that answer would determine whether or not I would be at Chelsea," said Kenyon. Abramovich responded that he wanted to build success. "It was the right answer, and what we are doing now is creating the foundation for Chelsea to build success over the next ten years."

Kenyon was speaking at the International Football Arena in Zurich, an event introduced by FIFA president Sepp Blatter and attended by club chairmen from Europe and South America eager to tap into the Chelsea mindset. Kenyon himself was happy to press the flesh, charming delegates from South Africa, China and Hungary, and he did shed light on the club's future strategies. But there was another purpose to his visit which was, as he put it, "to help explode the myth that all we do is spend loads of money."

Kenyon was keen to point out that the initial investment from owner Abramovich was only 60m, considerably less than the 800m the Glazer family spent on the purchase of Manchester United. That is why Abramovich has been able to spend around 300m on new players, whereas United have far fewer funds at their disposal.

"If you look at all the money that we have spent, most of that money has gone back into football and that's an interesting side-point to what Chelsea have been doing," said Kenyon. "We haven't spent 800m in order to acquire the club and that money has then gone out of the game.

"A lot of the money we spent on players has gone back into the game: it's gone to West Ham because we bought some players [Frank Lampard for 11m, Glen Johnson for 6m, Joe Cole for 6.6m] from them, and it's gone to Lyon [Michael Essien for 24m]. It's gone back into circulation, to support and supplement other purchases - so I don't think it's all bad."

The concept of Abramovich as a philanthropist for other clubs may seem an unlikely one, but this was the positive spin Kenyon was pushing. He went on to claim that transfer negotiations are not easy when clubs double their asking-price as soon as they know Chelsea are interested. "It's a nightmare but you have to accept it," he shrugged. Sympathy was hardly flooding in for the champions from those listening in, who included Dr Kurt Weder, the jolly president of FC Thun, the Champions League side from Switzerland whose annual budget is 2.3m, almost one-third of Frank Lampard's reported annual salary. "I wish I had those problems," Weder told me later.

Investment at this stage is key to the strategy of building success for the future, according to Kenyon. That's why Chelsea spent 24.5m in buying out the existing contract with manufacturers Umbro, who will be replaced by Adidas next season on a 12m-per-year deal. They also changed shirt sponsors from Emirates to Samsung, with the rationale that Chelsea's new major partners had the "global footprint" they were looking for in their target areas of North America, China and Russia.

"It's not done on the basis of coming in for ten days [for a tour] then going away for two years. It's about building a sustainable presence and that takes time and resources, and partnerships in the right areas. And our partners Adidas and Samsung are key to assisting with that."

Chelsea's business affairs director Paul Smith has already spoken of designing customised packages to fan-bases abroad. These might include memberships to local supporters' club with discounts off products, sweepstakes offering trips to the stadium, or priority access when Chelsea tour fans' home territory.

"We chose New York and Los Angeles in America because that is where soccer is important, there are dedicated soccer stadiums and there is already an environment where soccer is experienced," said Kenyon. "As for Asia, football has been targeted as a key area of development to successful business there but it cannot be done overnight. It's hard work, and needs a lot of investment."

Chelsea may be playing catch-up in this region: last week, Real Madrid announced a partnership with China's largest financial conglomerate CITIC Group to expand their image in the country. Part of the deal will see Real work as partners to Chinese club Beijing Guoan. They have also signed a five-year shirt-sponsorship deal with Taiwanese mobile company BenQ worth 70m.

"The approach we take in each region will be different. We have a menu of activities and we will deploy them in the right market-place," said Kenyon, adding that in Asia, Chelsea will need a team of people on the ground who can use the local language. This could well give them an edge over their competitors.

Kenyon also cleared up several stories doing the rounds about Chelsea: no, they have no time for and are not into multi-ownership of clubs, quashing reports that Abramovich is helping bankroll Corinthians of Brazil and PSV Eindhoven; no, there are no plans to leave Stamford Bridge because that would run counter to their strategy of becoming the London side, and anyway, the current ground may have a smaller capacity than Old Trafford but it's match-day revenue is as much as United's; and no, they are not worried by the new UEFA regulations which rule that each squad must have eight home-grown players in it for European matches from the 2008-09 season.

"One of our last recruits was Frank Arnesen, whose sole role is to spot and develop youth for Chelsea, because if we are to be true to our objectives, we can't keep buying players, we have to home-grow them," Kenyon said. Fears that Chelsea will pick up the best under-17 talent from around the world are unfounded, although the John Obi Mikel saga is yet to be settled and both United and Chelsea were this week linked with buying Panos Armenekas, an Australian aged just seven.

"The key to our acquisition policy is that the core of our team is English," said Kenyon. That determination was proved this week when a Football League Appeals Committee ordered Chelsea to pay up to 2.5m for three 16-year-old players, Harry Worley from Stockport (for up to 800,000), Ryan Bertrand from Gillingham (775,000) and Scott Sinclair from Bristol Rovers (950,000).

Yet that did not stop Marcelo Figueiredo Portugal Gouvea, the president of Sao Paulo, asking Kenyon why Chelsea have never bought a Brazilian player. Kenyon batted back the question by referring to problems with cultural differences and work permits. His charm offensive may have revealed Chelsea's plans for the future, but the philanthropy could be working after all: his counterparts at other clubs just want to sell him their players.