Fri, 20th Apr 2007

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon has today (Friday) spoken about José Mourinho's future and on-going player contract negotiations.

In an interview on Chelsea TV, which can be seen from 6.30pm, Kenyon gave the following answers to important questions:


Q: Peter, there has been a lot of speculation surrounding Chelsea recently?

A: There has, and I would like to be clear on one thing. We support José as manager and given the level of speculation, where we are now is an even bigger achievement.

Whatever you have read or heard, no lists of candidates have been drawn up, no one has been offered the job. So let's put that to bed straightaway.

José has a contract to 2010 and he wants to stay. We are not going to sack him, he has the club's support. That's the situation and we are agreed on it.


Q: Will this stop the speculation?

A: Hopefully it will and I think it should. As far as we are all concerned what is most important is that it is business as usual at Chelsea and putting all our energy into winning the three remaining trophies.


Q: And what about the situation re player contracts?

A: Every contract is unique, no two contracts are the same. Michael Essien, Wayne Bridge and Didier Drogba have all signed new deals. That's fantastic news for the future of Chelsea.

John Terry and Frank Lampard are not yet completed. That's football. What's important to remember about contract speculation is that there are only two definitive stages, when the discussions start and when they end, either with an agreement or with no agreement.

And at the moment we are in between those situations.

Again, I don't want anything to deflect us from our main goal, winning matches and trophies. And I think the players we have been talking to agree, both John and Frank have said similar.