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Arnesen outlines Blues ambition

20/10/2005

Frank Arnesen has revealed that he has been brought to Chelsea to attract the best young footballing talent in the world to Stamford Bridge.

The Blues sporting director moved across London from Spurs in controversial circumstances this year with Chelsea having to pay their rivals an estimated £8 million for the Dane's services.

He had been forced to be a bystander on gardening leave for the majority of the summer but is now relishing his new role, which he revealed involves ensuring Chelsea are not held to ransom by clubs for players because of owner Roman Abramovich's billions.

"I have been given an opportunity by a club who are investing not only in players but also in the structure of the club in terms of scouting and development," he told Radio Five Live.

"Chelsea are taking this very seriously. We will not go out and spend money all the time. It has to be a combination of that and the players that I will go out and look for.

"And when I'm looking for players, I will ask the same questions as I did at PSV and Tottenham - 'are they good enough and is the price right?'"

The Premiership champions have already begun improving their youth team, having signed the likes of French under-21 international Lassana Diarra, who made his debut in last night's Champions League victory over Real Betis, from Le Havre, and Scott Sinclair, the highly talented 16-year-old striker bought from Bristol Rovers.

And this is the area where the majority of Arnesen's work will be focused on and he aspires to see a large number of footballers graduating from the Chelsea academy and going on to have successful careers.

"Our target is to find an academy player and bring him through to the first team in two years' time," he added.

"That is what I like - getting players to the club, seeing their development, watching them break into the first team and then into the national team."

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