Arnesen the key to Abramovich's plan

For someone who struggled to find work after discovering he was being forced out of PSV Eindhoven last year, Frank Arnesen has suddenly found he is a man in demand. Tottenham's suspended director of football is the subject of a bitter compensation battle with Chelsea, who want him to overhaul their scouting and youth programmes, which could yet go the way of most disputes involving the west Londoners - a Premier League inquiry.

Quite what Arnesen has done in the last 12 months to justify such an inflation in his reputation - he did sign Thimotee Atuba after all - is unclear, but Chelsea's grand plans are far more certain. The Premiership Champions want the Dane to establish the most comprehensive scouting and shipping network in football history.

The embittered and embarrassed Board members at White Hart Lane have already begun denigrating their former saviour's new role as that of a glorified scout, but Arnesen will not be spending his Wednesday afternoon's at a Barking school searching for the next John Terry.

Roman Abramovich has a global vision for Chelsea and Arnesen fits into this bigger picture. Having raised the bar on the field under Jose Mourinho, they are now intent on pulling further away off it as well.

Abramovich has transformed football since buying Chelsea two years ago, but there is more than rubles to the Russian revolution. Having made his billions by cultivating contacts in the Kremlin he has used the same skills to build up a series of alliances across Europe, sympathetic clubs with which to buy and sell players. Chelsea have already started buying up talented youngsters and sending them out to other clubs - Alcides at Benfica, Alex at PSV and Corinthians' latest signing Javier Mascherano are all destined to end up at Stamford Bridge, while Kaka recently revealed that he had the option to join CSKA Moscow en route to Chelsea when he signed for AC Milan.

This process will accelerate under Arnesen, the newest general in the Roman Empire. Abramovich has already worked twice with the 48-year-old, being involved in the deal that took Alex to PSV and paying the £12million required to take Arjen Robben to Chelsea, and was impressed with his negotiating skills and professionalism.