Kenyon confident Robben will stay

Chelsea’s Dutch winger Arjen Robben will not be leaving the club, according to chief executive Peter Kenyon.

Robben has been consistently linked with a move to Real Madrid and recent reports suggested the Spanish champions were close to getting their man.

President Ramon Calderon named Robben as one of the players he wanted to bring to the club during his 2006 election campaign but Kenyon has effectively dismissed any hope of a move.

Robben is in the midst of negotiating an extension to his current contract and has already intimated his desire to stay.

Now Kenyon has declared: “Arjen is very happy. He’s just got married and he wants to demonstrate and prove what a great player he is and still believes the Premier League is the best opportunity. I’m confident he’ll be here next season.”

Speculation over Robben’s departure surfaced again after Chelsea were linked with a £12m offer from Lyon winger Florent Malouda in the French media.

However, Kenyon insisted that Chelsea were not looking to improve their squad with big money signings after landing three players for nothing so far this summer.

Kenyon added: “By Chelsea standards it’s been very quiet. That’s probably the headline...both in terms of names and in terms of big spending. We’ve had three or four so-called free transfers.”