Source: Telegraph
Ron Gourlay replaces Peter Kenyon at Chelsea
Gourlay, an internal appointment, will succeed Peter Kenyon, who quit after losing a four-year long power struggle with Arnesen, the sporting director. Arnesen will be the main liaison between the board and manager Carlo Ancelotti and will be in charge of the co-ordination of first team activity, including the buying and selling of players.
In reality this has been taking place for some time with Arnesen having regained the favour of owner Roman Abramovich. It caps a remarkable turnaround for the Dane who, this time last year, had appeared to be on his way out of Stamford Bridge. Prior to that he had clashed with former manager Jose Mourinho while his work as head of youth development had been questioned.
Arnesen appears to have convinced Abramovich that he is not responsible for the failure to sign players such as Robinho, who joined Manchester City having been so close to agreeing a move to Chelsea, and Alexandre Pato who joined AC Milan when a deal had appeared in place at Stamford Bridge.
However things could change again if Chelsea fail to overturn the Fifa ban which prevents them from signing players in the next two transfer windows because of the controversy over the arrival of French teenager Gaël Kakuta at the club in 2007. If Arnesen is culpable then Abramovich may act but, for now, he appears to have convinced the billionaire that the extent of his role was merely identifying the talent.
Crucially Arnesen has forged a close relationship with Ancelotti. The pair speak daily and it is significant that Ancelotti is keen to promote the players from the club’s academy who have been recruited by Arnesen. It has not gone unnoticed that Ancelotti is already attending more youth-team games that any of his predecessors and has already talking up the prospects of the likes of Fabio Borini, Jeffrey Bruma and Sam Hutchinson who all made the bench for Tuesday’s Champions League tie at home to Porto. This has met with Abramovich’s approval.
Previous managers, including Mourinho and Luiz Felipe Scolari, showed little interest in this area of the club with the former complaining that there were no good players coming through while the latter solely concentrated on the first team.
In the reorganisation which follows Kenyon’s decision – he will remain for now as a non-executive director and see through the Kakuta appeal – Arnesen will work closely with director Eugene Tenenbaum, who is Abramovich’s right-hand man at Chelsea with Gourlay looking after the commercial aspects of the business.
The 46 year-old steps up from his role as chief operating officer and will have a far more diminished role than the one that Kenyon once enjoyed. Like Kenyon, Gourlay was recruited from Manchester United, where he was commercial director of the club’s merchandising department. Like Kenyon he also previously worked for Umbro.
Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck claimed that Gourlay’s role would not be of less importance. He said: “He has the total support of the board and Roman Abramovich and both the football and business elements of the club will report to him.”
Gourlay himself added: “All successful clubs strike the balance between the footballing and commercial sides and my role is to ensure this happens as it is a critical part of our strategy moving forward.”
