Posted July 12, 200915 yr ARNESEN BECOMES SPORTING DIRECTORPosted on: Sun 12 Jul 2009 Chelsea Football Club is delighted to confirm that Frank Arnesen is to become sporting director with immediate effect. He will continue with his roles relating to the Reserves and Academy but will also now take on responsibilities relating to the co-ordination of first team activity and supporting the first team manager. Frank will continue to report to the chief executive, Peter Kenyon. As Chelsea continues to grow rapidly, the board wanted increased senior support for the first team and new manager on a daily basis at Cobham to help assist the overall long-term football and business strategy of the club. Interesting. Seems he is going to have a lot more influence on team affairs.
July 12, 200915 yr I thought this was waiting to happen for quite some time. So a greater influence on the first-team matters it seems. Might as well help the development of the likes of Cork, Woods, Kakuta etc.
July 12, 200915 yr Cheers for the news barny.....not that you actually came up with it, but you get what I mean. I think this is a gret move, and it has been on the cards for quite some time in my opinion. I do like the fact that they had to put in there "will still report to Peter Kenyon." Hopefully, if Kenyon is still sticking around, then he'll just be in a marketing/global branding role and stay as far away from player dealings as possible Scott
July 12, 200915 yr Another wedge between PK and the club methinks. that was the first thing i thought. looks to me like PK is being sidelined.
July 13, 200915 yr Yay, sporting directors work out SO well. Exactly. Our last one was Henk Ten Cate, and the one before that was Avram Grant. It seems like the only reason why "Sporting Directors" and "Directors of Football" are ever appointed is to destabilize someone's position. On the other hand, it is a bit more common in Italy for these roles to exist at clubs, so maybe it is something that Ancelotti wants.
July 13, 200915 yr henk ten cate was an assistant manager, never anything else. and ancelotti has never been an autonomous manager.
