CHELSEA chief Peter Kenyon has dismissed Manchester
Uniteds swoop for Carlos Tevez and said: Were not worried by them
at all. Kenyon has also amazingly already written off Liverpool and
Arsenal as title challengers. Alex Ferguson is poised to take his
summer spending spree to a whopping £70million with a move for
Argentine international Tevez. The United manager has already
splashed out £50m on Owen Hargreaves, Anderson and Nani and will
spend another £20m to get Tevez.
Jose Mourinhos new arrivals Steve Sidwell, Claudio Pizarro, Tal
Ben Haim and Alex have all been free transfers after owner Roman
Abramovich ordered cut-backs. But Mourinho is set to break his
spending duck with the arrival of £15m French winger Florent
Malouda next week. And Kenyon is adamant that will be enough to win
back the Premiership title from United after dismissing the chances
of Liverpool and Arsenal.
He said: Uniteds spending this summer has surprised everyone. The
money theyve spent and the way theyve come out of the blocks so
quickly has been a surprise. But thats their business. Im not
worried at all about what theyve spent. They can do what they
want and were very happy with where we are.
I spoke to Jose on Tuesday and hes very confident and happy with
the squad hes got. This is very much Joses wish in terms of what
he wanted. We dont believe that spending a lot of money on any
one player this year will add any benefit. But if the right
players become available, the money to buy them is available.
We are currently in dialogue with Lyon over Florent Malouda and it
would be nice to conclude that deal before we go to the USA next
week. Im optimistic hell be joining us at some point out there.
After that, I honestly dont think we need anyone else. Weve
strengthened the squad and the last one were looking at is
Malouda. And were sort of there with that one.
The Malouda deal comes after Liverpools £21.5m swoop for Fernando
Torres and Arsenals £10m capture of Eduardo Da Silva this week.
But Kenyon insisted: Its still a two-horse race. In terms of
winning the title next season I think its between us and
United.
Liverpool have spent a lot of money strengthening and will always
be a threat. Spurs have spent a lot and Arsenal will be one of the
top four again. But we still see United as our No 1 rivals.
Kenyon insisted the Blues are not about to be weakened by players
sales. He added: Weve had no offers for any of our our players
and if we got them wed reject them.
Im not embarrassed about the contracts weve signed and the wages
were paying. And Im confident all the players are committed to
Chelsea.
