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I know I’m taking a dangerous route here. As far as my knowledge goes and from what I’ve read from the 606 and other message boards and forums, only some 99.99% of us Blues fans hate Peter Kenyon.
The rest all seem to like him okay, maybe I fall in the latter category.
To me signing Kenyon was a key move by Abramovich. If Chelsea today is a global brand, then its thanks to him. People seem to dislike him for two reasons.
a) They blame him for all our transfer flops
b) They think he resembles the annoying Uncle Fester from the Adams Family (!)
I would never blame our transfer flops on him. He is just a negotiator who makes the deals, not a footballing man.
I don’t think even a single manager of ours from Ranieri to Hiddink ever took his advice on who to sign. We all know Sheva was Roman’s idea and Kenyon just obliged to what he was asked to do.
Never has any news come that any single player our team signed was Kenyon’s suggestion. Then why blame him for the transfers? It looks ridiculous.
As for his looks, I’m sorry. I’m afraid I would not be able to defend that.
When did Man Utd exactly become THE GLOBAL BRAND?
Until the early 90s, it was Liverpool that was Britain’s Numero Uno. But they did not have that someone who could capitalize on their popularity. This is where Rick Parry let them down. A lot of Liverpudlians acknowledge this fact and are happy to see the back of him.
Rafa Benitez, being a man of details, may have identified this. It was during the 90s that Manchester United gained popularity and wide spread support.
If I am to be precise, it is the late 90s that saw a tremendous increase in their popularity. Their on-field success only made things smooth and easy. Chelsea until 2000 were the Everton of today. Winning the odd-cup (I know Everton havn’t because its just too tough these days) and finishing just behind the top teams.
In terms of support and fan following, I doubt if there were people in Asia who even knew Chelsea as a team then.
Kenyon, if I’m right, was appointed by Man Utd as their Chief Executive in 1997. And its not a coincidence that the corporate fan following increased since then. They aren’t called the ‘Prawn Sandwich Brigade’ for nothing.
If any, the credit goes to Kenyon for what he did. He marketed the club as a brand like no other team did.
Real Madrid, Barca and Milan were probably the only ones which had better marketing. But that was solely down to the player’s plying their trade there. Merchandising was their only marketing tool. They had the top players then.
But Kenyon largely played a part in bringing money into the English game. Man U slowly became the only English team to make the 30m pound signings – Nistelrooy, Veron, Ferdinand.
Just look at what he has done to Chelsea.
Where were we in 2002 and where we are in 2009 in terms of our popularity?
Abramovich is no jerk when it comes to handling business. And to me he made a wise investment in recruiting Kenyon.
The price of sponsorship deals of ours currently are second only to Man U. All those tie ups and stuff with various footballing associations all over Asia and America is, as every single soul knows, not to develop the grassroots level there but just to market Brand Chelsea. Believe me.
As far as I know, Kenyon has done an excellent job in promoting our club name all across the globe.
Also, I doubt if building the excellent training facilities at Cobham was Roman’s idea. Kenyon was behind the whole operation insisting it is the training facilities that most top players first looked for before joining any team.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.