Chelsea's chief executive Peter Kenyon last night responded to a plea for support from Claudio Ranieri by declining to back his manager.
The Italian has been hurt by the recent claims that he is set to lose his job whether or not Chelsea secure a trophy this season. Yesterday he said that the rumours have been damaging to his preparations for tomorrow night's Champions League quarter-final with Arsenal.
"For me everything is rubbish - I don't believe it. But of course the club should say something if I'm under pressure," he told Sky Sports News. "But I want to say the club should say: 'This is all rubbish. Continue to work' - not for me but for the players, for all of their sacrifices."
However, Kenyon refused to back his manager. "This wave of unprecedented and continuous media speculation about Claudio's future and false links to other managers is unhelpful to our manager and the players in the build-up to an important match in the Champions League," he said. "We will not add to this speculation by responding and only wish to reiterate that Claudio Ranieri has over three years to run on his contract. We are at an exciting stage of the season where we stand second in the Premiership and have the chance to advance to the semi-finals of the Champions League."
Last month Kenyon stated that the season would be a failure if Ranieri's team did not win a trophy and a slew of newspaper reports this weekend indicated that the club had already decided to call time on the head coach at the end of the season.
