Kean: Why I turned down Chelsea

Sep 7 2008 By Mark Guidi

ROBINHO wasn't the only one that Phil Scolari didn't manage to lure to Chelsea this summer.

The Brazilian looked London-bound but joined Manchester City last week for £32million from Real Madrid.

But prior to that the Portuguese gaffer's first move was to ask Steve Kean to leave his assistant manager's post at Coventry to join his backroom team.

The highly-rated Scottish coach considered taking the mega-bucks Blues offer but decided to knock back the chance and stay with his Championship side.

The 39-year-old enjoys being hands-on every day and would not have been Scolari's direct right-hand man.

Being No.3 or No.4 would have "demented" Kean and that's why he's happy to assist Chris Coleman in his bid to take Coventry back to the Premiership.

Kean, who failed to make the grade at Celtic as a teenager but later starred at Swansea, Reading and Portuguese outfit Coimbra, told MailSport: "To get a call from Chelsea was nice.

"I was surprised when the call came in. It was a huge compliment.

"I immediately flagged it up to Coventry to keep them informed. I'm not the type to go behind the back of my employer.

"I'd never met Scolari but played in Portugal for a number of years and can speak the language.

"It was quite exciting but I decided it was not right for me. I prefer to be at the heart of what is going on at training and on match days."

Coventry have ambitions to get back to the top flight but Coleman and Kean are under no immediate pressure from supremo Ray Ranson.

The Coventry chairman's plan is to see the Sky Blues go up within four years, which in today's climate is a generous amount of time to get it right.

Kean explained: "Ray is a good man to work for. We deal directly with him. It's best that way as there is no confusion.

"Coventry excites us. The club has opened its new stadium and also spent £1million upgrading the training ground.

"We avoided relegation on the final day of last season and this campaign is about trying to finish mid-table.

"Anything above that would be a bonus. We don't really want to be going up to the Premiership to go straight back down again.

"The chairman has told us to build a team to get us into the Premiership and stay there. We have eight transfer windows to do that.

"It's early days but I think the teams that came down from the Premiership will be the main contenders to go back up.

"They have the parachute money to buy players.

"But even if you look out of it at Christmas you can still sneak in there providing you are not totally detached from the rest.

"Hull put a great run together in the second half of last season to go up."

Coleman has had Kean by his side since he was manager of Fulham. The 38-year-old boss also took him to Real Sociedad.

Kean has total respect for the Welshman and said: "I was in charge of the academy at Fulham and Chris came to work with me when his playing career ended.

"But he was only there six months and then moved on to manage the first team.

"It was always going to be that way as he has big respect in the dressing-room.

"Chris gives me a lot of responsibility. I love working on the training ground, coaching the players. That's what I'm good at.

"I'm happy at Coventry and happy to be working with Chris."

The Chelsea job wasn't enough to lure Kean but he would never rule out a return to Spain.

Coleman and Kean left Sociedad in January with the club sitting in 5th place in the Second Division after they found themselves frozen out of the decisions on buying and selling players.

Keane said: "Things were not working out the way we wanted. The club sold the 12 highest earners. It was unfortunate the way it ended.

"We feel we still have work to be done at Sociedad. Maybe in the future there will be an opportunity to go back."