New kick in the Footsie as Chelsea plays its Red card

SELLERS should get stuck into

The shock news will send more cold shivers through England's elite football clubs because the billionaire is proving that his money does talk and it's not only star players that he's after, it's top brass management too.

It surely must have taken a huge cash offer to make Kenyon, a local lad born in Stalybridge, 13 miles from Old Trafford, and a lifelong supporter of the Red Devils, move south.

His departure is a huge blow to ManU. Over the past five years, while Sir Alex Ferguson and the team have won four Premier League titles and the European Champions Cup in 1999, low-key Kenyon has shadowed that with sharply rising turnover, plus higher dividends and operating profits.

He has also been instrumental in banging ManU's drum overseas. He tied up the mega-marketing deal with US sportswear giant Nike and has been spreading the brand name throughout the Far East. Abramovich will expect him to do the same at Chelsea.

ManU recently touched a two-year high of 182p. Bid speculation has buoyed the price as a string of potential bidders have built stakes in the club, led by Cubic Expression, the investment vehicle of Irish racing tycoons JP McManus and John Magnier, which owns 11.4%.

The Footsie was in fine form, closing 34.9 points up at a year's high of 4292.1. It drew late encouragement from Wall Street's early rally of 88 points and recovery from Friday's weak jobless data which had cast doubts on the US economic fightback.

Nervous selling ahead of tomorrow's agm left Currys-to-PC World and The Link electrical retailing giant Dixons 1 1/2p dimmer at 140p. Top broker Merrill Lynch made sparks fly by advising clients to pull the plug because of growing concerns about structural, regulatory and cyclical threats.

Analyst Nick Hawkins is particularly worried about the Dixons chain, operating with High Street costs and out-of-town gross margins. He expects Wednesday's meeting to say that UK like-for-like sales are flat, but for last year's pattern to repeat, with deteriorating sales through Christmas.

Meanwhile, Nick Bubb at rival broker Evolution is bullish. His target price is 155p. Although the very hot weather would not have helped trade in early August, The Link has done better on the back of the pick-up in mobile phone sales and Currys has recovered from a poor Christmas.

Bubb believes the timing of Dixons' analyst presentation on October 23 suggests that the eventual Competition Commission review outcome on extended warranties will be benign.

Department store Debenhams rose 3 1/4p to 436 3/4p as rumours of a counter to Permira's 425p-a-share £1.5bn bid intensified. CVC and Texas Pacific is expected to put £70m more than Permira on the table.

Boots the Chemist firmed 2p to 678p after chairman Nigel Rudd and his wife spent about £304,000 buying 45,000 shares at around 675 1/2p. New chief executive Richard Baker bought 9,260 at 674p.

Package tour operator First Choice edged up 1p to 115p on hefty turnover of 9m. Oriel Securities says buy and believes demand and prices over the past three months have been strong. The firm has been quick to cut costs and tightly manage capacity.

Speculative buying lifted Eurotunnel 6 1/2p to 70 1/4p.

Mike Curley's exhibitions group Mice improved 2p to 89p. Buyers nibbled after an upbeat pre-close trading statement. The US division is presently enjoying its third consecutive quarter of revenue growth.

Arc Risk Management firmed 1/2p to 1 1/2p after signing a deal with HSBC for the distribution of its security products to the bank's high asset value general insurance clients.

GREEN lights flashed again as Aim-listed ITIS edged forward 1/4p to 26 1/4p. The company has secured a three-year deal to supply its radio data system - traffic message channel (RDS-TMC ) service to Saab's 9.3 sports saloon and convertible range. It follows a similar contract signed with Ford Motor last month, and last October's five-year deal with the AA to operate its telephone and telematics services exclusively.