Peter Kenyon has attempted to shift attention away from Claudio Ranieri's position and back on to Chelsea's title bid as he declared the manager's future to be a closed subject.
The Chelsea chief executive had increased the pressure on Ranieri himself with the declaration last week that not winning a trophy this season would be considered a "failure".
That led to renewed speculation over Sven-Goran Eriksson replacing Ranieri this summer, with the Italian forced to defend his ambitions for the club after Sunday's 1-0 win against Charlton.
Kenyon has now, however, seen the fall-out from his comments and is attempting to smooth the waters before tonight's game against Portsmouth.
"There's been huge speculation and I've lived with that around managers for a long time. I know how disruptive that can be," he said.
"I know some of the comments I made with regard to winning a trophy have been linked directly with whether Claudio has to win a trophy or be out. Those links have not been made by me or anybody at the club. The issue is that there isn't a deal with Sven-Goran Eriksson and Claudio has a contract to 2007. We're third in the league and in contention for the title, still in the FA Cup and further along the Champions League than many people expected. The squad has definitely come together more quickly than most outsiders expected it would. So we're in a great position."
Ranieri has always insisted this season is about building Chelsea's foundations while chasing, but not promising, success. And Kenyon accepts that Chelsea's development is not about a revolution even after spending £120m on new players.
"You get there by evolution and the foundations have to be right. This is about making the club a real European force and you don't do that overnight or in a season," he added.
"There are clubs who have bought the title in the past and then nearly disappeared. That's not what we're about at Chelsea. We want to be up there with the best, not just winning once but regularly."
