Former Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon has hailed the Stamford Bridge tenure of Roman Abramovich and appeared to draw unflattering comparisons with current Old Trafford owners the Glazers.
Kenyon helped turn United into champions of Europe and football’s first commercial powerhouse during a six-year spell that ended in 2003, when Abramovich hired him to oversee the successful construction of another dynasty.
The Russian’s reign has been reassessed since his sanctioning for links to the Kremlin but he remains popular with many Chelsea fans for a hands-on approach that contrasts wildly with the Glazers’ distant brand of ownership, which began in 2005.
“Abramovich was an unbelievably good owner, no matter what anybody says. He put his own money in, he left it with no debt, he was passionate about it, he came to games,” Kenyon told the Business of Sport podcast.
“I think the worst owners are absent owners, who don’t feel the temperature of the fanbase, that it’s just an investment. You know what, there’s better things to just put your money into. I don’t believe it’s a normal PE play. I think your marbles have gone if that’s what you’re trying to do.”
Despite United’s on-field struggles in the last decade, they still have the fourth highest revenue anywhere in club football – a legacy of the pioneering commercial work of Kenyon and his cohort during the glory days of the Sir Alex Ferguson era.
“What Manchester United represents around the world today, it’s still right up there. And that was born out of that period,” Kenyon added.
“Interestingly, Liverpool at that stage were a better known football club because of its success in the 80s. What they never did is capitalise on it. They never commercialised it. We went to Asia and owned Asia and still do in many ways.
Kenyon tips Man Utd to ‘explode again’
“It’s remarkable to me, the commercial success of United in a period of time where their on-field success has been awful for the last 10 years. But it hasn’t really diminished or damaged the commercial value or brand of Manchester United.
“I think there’s other learnings there in terms of, if you get these things right, they do operate like normal global brands. It is about that affinity, and when success comes back, which it will do at some point because it’s cyclical, it’ll explode again.”
United are rebuilding under the leadership of co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Kenyon rates new manager Ruben Amorim a step in the right direction.
“They’ve got to get their identity back,” he said. “There’s one comment that the coach recently said, and I loved it. They’d had a good result, and he said, ‘I’m really annoyed about the previous three results, where had we applied ourselves like today, we’d have won it.’
“And that’s when I thought, good on you. Because I think rebuilding that understanding of the culture of what Manchester United is is critical to getting success back.”
Kenyon is now an advisor at Atlassian Williams Racing and has tipped them to return to the Formula 1 podium and complete what he calls “the biggest comeback in sport ever”.
“It’s got an incredible heritage. It’s an independent team. It’s not selling soft drinks. It’s not selling fast cars or slow cars or whatever. It stands on its own,” he added.
“It’s the third longest team in the sport. It’s a multiple world champion. It’s built on the ethos of Frank Williams. And we are committed to getting it back to the top of the grid.”