Kenyon 'hopeful' of Essien capture
Chelsea remain “hopeful” of completing a deal for Michael Essien to round off their summer spending spree.
The Blues wrapped up the signing of Shaun Wright-Phillips from Manchester City yesterday for a £21m (€30.4m) fee and the focus is now on softening Lyon’s resistance to selling Essien.
The French champions are believed to want £30million for the Ghanaian star and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon is still optimistic that the two sides can do business.
“Michael Essien is well and truly still an important acquisition for us. We’ve made two offers and had meetings with Lyon,” Kenyon told Chelsea TV.
“[Lyon] don’t want to lose a player of his quality but we want to acquire a player of that quality and Michael has made it quite plain that he would like to join Chelsea and seize that opportunity.
“He sees it as a natural progression for him to move on from being France’s top player. We’ve still got quite a long way to go on that but I’m hopeful it will come off.”
Kenyon hailed the arrival of Wright-Phillips to Stamford Bridge as he became the first Englishman signed by Chelsea under Jose Mourinho’s management.
“He has everything that we were looking for; he’s English, he’s young, he has got a great future and he will clearly add to the quality of the team,” said the former Manchester United chief executive.
Wright-Phillips will provide competition to Damien Duff, Arjen Robben and Joe Cole on the flanks, and Kenyon sees it as another move to consolidate Chelsea’s position at the pinnacle of the domestic game.
He added: “There’s no doubt about it, when you look at our season we were probably playing our best football when we had two wide players, and we certainly missed Damien and Arjen when they went out [injured].
“Joe [Cole] had a great season, he improved dramatically over the season, so we’ve got a very competitive situation. We’ve raised the bar in terms of winning two trophies last season and everybody here felt they wanted to do better, so this is about quality additions to the team.”
Kenyon also revealed the fitness and form of Hernan Crespo had been a pleasant surprise. The Argentina striker spent last season on loan at AC Milan but after failing to secure a permanent move away from Chelsea he now provides competition for Didier Drogba, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Carlton Cole.
“Hernan Crespo has been a great bonus for everybody,” the Chelsea chief said.
“He really is on fire. He has had a great start to training and he is looking forward to playing at Chelsea. He recognises the enormous change that has taken place from his year out and I think you. I’ve got to say that he’s a fantastic addition.”
