Peter Kenyon steps down as Chelsea chief executive

Surprise announcement that Kenyon is to leave his role comes days after the club were banned from making new signings until 2011

FIRST POSTED SEPTEMBER 16, 2009

Peter Kenyon, the man who brought Jose Mourinho to Stamford Bridge, is to step down as chief executive of Chelsea from the end of next month. The surprise announcement was made just days after the club were banned from signing any new players until January 2011 and raises the possibility that he has fallen out with owner Roman Abramovich.

Kenyon (pictured above, right, with Mourinho), who has been with Chelsea since 2004, will continue as a non-executive director and will represent the club in various committees of UEFA and the European Clubs' Association. Tellingly though, Kenyon revealed he would be looking for a new job, saying he felt he had "at least one major challenge left in me" - indicating that the change of circumstances was imposed upon him.

Despite the move he refused to criticise his employers. "I have been in football for 15 years and I can say with great certainty and pleasure the experience at Chelsea is one of the best I have had," he said.

Kenyon's arrival at Chelsea was controversial. He had been chief executive of Manchester United for three seasons when it was announced he was heading to London in 2003. He was sent on gardening leave before taking up his post with the Blues in 2004.

As chief executive of Chelsea he oversaw a period of unprecedented success and also controversy. Under manager Mourinho Chelsea won back to back Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006 as well as the FA Cup in 2007.

There were plenty of headlines off the pitch as well. Sven-Goran Eriksson was linked with a move to the club in 2004 after the Swede was pictured meeting Kenyon while he was still manager of the England team.

In 2005, Chelsea were fined £200,000 for tapping up Arsenal defender Ashley Cole before his move to Stamford Bridge and earlier this month, Chelsea were banned from signing any new players until January 2011. They were found guilty by Fifa of inducing Gael Kakuta to break his contract with Lens in 2007.

Last year Kenyon said the club retained their "ambitious" target of breaking even by 2010 but in February this year Chelsea revealed that they made a £67.5m loss for the financial year to the end of June 2008.

There were rumours in the summer linking former Umbro marketing director Kenyon with the Premier League's latest financial heavyweights, Manchester City.