Arnesen awarded seat on Chelsea board
By dixon9
April 30 2009
The Times is reporting that Frank Arnesen, Chelsea’s chief scout and director of youth and development has been given a seat on the board of Chelsea Football Club. Although the decision will surprise some Chelsea fans it seems clear that Abramovich values his influence.
Just before last Christmas, the media were rife with stories that Abramovich was planning to hand Arnesen his P45 due to dissatisfaction with the lack of youth players coming through the ranks into the first team. That said, the idea of streams of starlets bulging out the squad was deemed as too soon by the now departed to Watford, Brendon Rogers who stated that around 2010 should be when the first fruits are seen.
This season, only Stoch, Mancienne and Di Santo have made first team appearances (and Mancienne, at the club since 8 years of age, is not an Arnesen find).
Mind you, Roman hasn’t committed himself too much as the deal is a 12-month rolling contract.
Since Mourinho left. Arnesen also assumed the responsibility of chief scout for the first team as well as youth development so is pretty much in charge of any new player acquisition the club makes although any new first team manager would have some preference in first team decisions.
Mike Forde, the performance director (no idea what that entails I’m afraid) also joins the six-man board.
The Times report also explains that there are three different boards – the football club board, then the executive board which is responsible for the day-to-day running of the club, and then the PLC board of Kenyon, Buck and Tenenbaum.
Arnesen and Forde have attended football club board meetings for some time as has Hiddink in order to provide advice on transfer targets.
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"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they don’t like it." P Kenyon.