'Last season's pain will inspire Chelsea'

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon says the pain of losing their Premier League title to Manchester United has made them determined to win it back next season.

Kenyon, whose side face United in Sunday's Community Shield at Wembley after beating them in last season's FA Cup final, dismissed any idea the team is becoming stale after a quiet time in the transfer market.

"If there was ever any concern about that then the first morning's training blew it away," he told Chelsea TV.

"The freshness, the eagerness, there's an absolute hunger on this team for success and there's hunger for getting the Premiership title back -- that hurt everyone last year... I feel very confident about the team."

Chelsea have made four new signings, but paid only one transfer fee -- that was undisclosed -- for Olympique Lyon's France [Images] winger Florent Malouda.

Israel defender Tal Ben Haim, midfielder Steve Sidwell and Peru striker Claudio Pizarro have all joined on free transfers.

Though the Premier League promises to be a battle, with Chelsea trying to repeat their title triumphs of 2005 and 2006, Kenyon believes there is also unfinished business in Europe.

Chelsea's bid since the 2003 takeover by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich to become a truly world-class club has been undermined by their failure to win the Champions League or even reach the final.

"I think it is one of the hardest trophies to pick up, to fulfil our ambitions as a world club, you have to win the Champions League," Kenyon said.

"It doesn't all rest on that this season, that's not what it's about, but two things what we've said is you have to win trophies on a regular basis, you have to win Premier League and Champions League more than once to reach those heights of being truly recognised as a world club."

He played down last season's speculation over the future of coach Jose Mourinho, saying the talk "didn't help".

"I think we got to a stage where nobody thought that Jose would be here -- apart from the people inside the club," he said.

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