CHELSEA have announced that it is unlikely that the club will sign anyone in the January transfer window.
If anyone was wondering if the financial crisis was affecting football, this was the ultimate proof of it.
Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said the London club were unlikely to bolster their squad in the January transfer window.
'It's not high on the agenda,' Kenyon said when asked (at the International Football Arena at Fifa headquarters on Monday) if coach Luiz Felipe Scolari would be allowed to buy players.
'We have an agreed squad size of 24. We had that squad size at the beginning of the year.'
A couple of years ago it would have been unthinkable that Chelsea would shy away from a stab at the transfer market in January.
In fact, for Chelsea's chief executive the situation is different now to even two months ago.
Financial crisis
'The economic world has changed. 'It would be remiss of us not to look at the implications of that. You have to recognise that the environment is different to two months ago,' Kenyon said in an interview about the effect of the global financial crisis on football.
Chelsea, owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, have reviewed their cost base as they seek to remain on track to meet their target of becoming profitable by the 2010/2011 season.
They recently offloaded 15 members of their scouting staff, and Kenyon insisted they were simply reacting to market forces.
'You can't believe that what we've enjoyed is going to continue,' he said. 'Marketing budgets are being slashed and that's got implications for everybody.
'I'm not saying we'll be hit but it's just us looking at deferring some costs and doing a line-by-line review.
'I think that's good management and prudent in these conditions.'
Economic downturn
And while Chelsea sit atop the Premier League standings on goal difference from Liverpool after 12 games, Kenyon revealed the corporate side of the game could suffer if the economic downturn continues to bite.
'You've got say that as of next season, corporate boxes is the area where most clubs are going to be under most immediate pressure from,' he added.
Instead, Chelsea have made it clear they will make a concerted effort to boost their production of homegrown players in order to avoid getting sucked in by the credit crunch, and potential new rules that would prohibit the cross-border transfer of Under-18 players.
However, Kenyon did say that the Blues would buy key players in the January transfer window if the club's injury crisis was not sustainable at the time.
'We need to invest continually but not at the levels we used to,' Kenyon said. 'We are not stopping transfers or anything drastic of that nature but we want to develop our own talent.
'Anything we do will be against the backdrop of a need to, rather than a desire to, like we reacted by bringing in Mineiro after Michael Essien's injury.'
And besides, he said the January transfer market was 'a notoriously bad time to buy players'.
'I'm not sure there are major players available in January, that's the reality,' Kenyon said.
'What is the point in bringing players in - and Felipe (Scolari, Chelsea's manager) is completely on board with this - if the only ones available are not good enough to improve what we've got?
'January is the wrong time to bring players in for the long term.'
