Following on from thoughts on squad strength and the unlikelihood of transfer activity in January, Peter Kenyon has discussed the latest on Chelsea's financial and stadium planning.

Included in the chief executive's words was a timeframe for the football club to operate independently of financial input from our owner. Kenyon also put a halt to speculation over the future of Stamford Bridge for the next two years.

All businesses are under scrutiny in the current global economic climate but although Chelsea directors have made it clear the club is not immune from the economic downturn, this has not altered the long term strategy.

'We set ourselves a target of breaking even in 2010 and I think it will be [achieved in] 2010 to 2011,' said Kenyon.

'We are very clear about achieving targets of nil-funding from the owner by the end of this season and that is a huge step forward.'

Nil-funding will mean a business not reliant on further interest-free loans to the club from Roman Abramovich.

'However, if the need arises, extending is not a problem,' explained Kenyon.

'It is not a question of Roman not putting money in, of course he will if necessary. Nil-funding has been a target for the business and that is what we are aiming for.

'The long-term plan here was always that we needed to be non-loss making and self-funding. All that the current global financial situation means is that you look at ways of accelerating that because that is right for Chelsea.

'This is not a diktat by Roman. He is absolutely committed and passionate about the club, but he is also a very good businessman which is why he had enough money to put 600 million into the club in the first place.

'You will find what we are doing here is the right and prudent thing to do. I don't think we are doing anything different than any other business or football club is or should be doing.'

Recently news stories have concerned a reduction in personnel in the worldwide scouting network, linked to this cost and budgetary review process.

Kenyon explained: 'We have invested very heavily in our training facilities at Cobham and the Academy and on top of that, for the last three years we have been building an international scouting network and that is the right thing to do.

'Irrespective of the financial environment, we were carrying out a normal review and given some of the rule changes in Europe, we decided we need to focus differently over the next three years, concentrating more on the areas we believe players will come from.

'That means fewer countries and as a consequence of that, we didn't need so many scouts. That clearly has positive financial implications because we don't need so many people.'

More people, and the ability to seat them in an expanded stadium, either on the current Stamford Bridge site or elsewhere in the locality has been a recurring topic for discussion. Kenyon has stated there will be no announcement on any development in the near future.

'At this moment in time, we are here and that is not going to change for at least the next two years. We are here for the next five years even if we decided something today and you have to build a business model around that.'