Recently appointed as Chelsea's Sporting Director, Frank Arnesen has been explaining just what his new role involves. "First of all I am delighted to do this. My role will be a little bit more senior," he told the Blues' official website. "We have Carlo Ancelotti who is fantastic. He is a coach with a lot of experience and has already won a lot as a player and as a coach so it is fantastic to get him in.

"We want to give him the support needed which is why I am jumping from the academy and I am now next to him so the support, his staff, himself will try to make the best out of it.

"The other thing is the transfer side of it. Peter Kenyon is the chief executive and I will report to him as usual and we have always worked together on transfers and more now it will be with senior players and I am looking forward to that as well and I am sure we will do a good job."

The role of sporting director remains unusual in England, but Arnesen remains convinced at the right club it can work.

"I have done it myself for 10 years with PSV Eindhoven and on the continent it is more normal than not," he added.

"In England we have not seen although I did do it at Spurs at one time, but actually there are not a lot of clubs who are doing this.

"But if you see how big nowadays the clubs are, there are so many things that you have to arrange yourself, not only the managers but also the clubs, in marketing, in sponsorship, the stadiums, you have to get a lot of money in, you have to try to do the best you can do to get a club like Chelsea running. You need specialists around the place and I have done it more than 10 years so it is not new for me."