With a Russian owner, an American chairman, a self-confessed Manchester United fan for a chief executive and a dozen new players, English Premier League club Chelsea have been transformed in half a season.

While the team were grinding out a 1-0 win against London neighbours Charlton Athletic at the weekend, employees from doorman to coach were wondering what new upheavals lay ahead in Roman Abramovich's brave new Stamford Bridge world.

Chief executive Peter Kenyon, recruited by the oil tycoon from Manchester United, has already caused ructions after a week in charge.

In several interviews his endorsement of Claudio Ranieri has been lukewarm, leading to speculation about when the genial coach might have to leave.

Kenyon's arrival has also put paid to a club institution. Former chairman Ken Bates' choleric column in the programme was axed on Sunday after 22 years.

"(New chairman) Bruce Buck told me Peter Kenyon would be doing a profile piece and it would be better if I didn't do my notes. I told him he could shove it and I wouldn't be doing them again," newspapers quoted Bates as saying.

The irascible Bates, who bought the ailing club for one pound in 1982, took the team back into the top flight and invested heavily in the southwest London stadium, adding restaurants, a hotel and leisure complex.

Under Bates and benefactor Matthew Harding, Chelsea pioneered the importation of foreign talent.

Chelsea began to flex their muscles when Harding, who later died in a helicopter crash, joined the board in the early 1990s.

CUP VICTORY

Dutch coach Ruud Gullit, a former world footballer of the year, brought Chelsea their first honour for 26 years when they lifted the FA Cup in 1997.

He attracted top Italians Gianluca Vialli, Gianfranco Zola and Roberto Di Matteo to the club, which recaptured some of the swagger and style it had enjoyed 30 years earlier.

Vialli replaced Gullit as coach in 1998 and guided the team to victories in the English League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup over the next three months. A second FA Cup success followed in 2000.

But Bates had stretched his business financially and, with an enormous wage bill and the bottom falling out of the European television rights market, Chelsea were in trouble again.

When Abramovich arrived last July he paid off 80 million pounds ($149.7 million) of debt, bought up 60 million pounds of shares including Bates' 17 million worth and allowed Ranieri to spend more than 100 million pounds on new players.

Ranieri snapped up Argentines Hernan Crespo and Juan Sebastian Veron, Romanian striker Adrian Mutu, France midfielder Claude Makelele and Irish winger Damien Duff.

Bates, who unceremoniously sacked both Gullit and Vialli, has, in turn, been shunted aside. He retains the title of chairman of the football club but the parent company is now headed by Abramovich associate Buck and he is no longer on the board.

Kenyon, credited with turning Manchester United into one of the world's best known sporting brands, has described Abramovich as passionate and ambitious for Chelsea.

UNDER-ACHIEVERS

Kenyon feels Chelsea, whose only league title came in 1955, have underachieved.

"While we are prepared to invest we also want over a period of time to get a return for that investment," Kenyon said.

All of which leaves Ranieri, a Bates recruit in 2000, in a tight spot.

Ranieri's mantra since the start of the season has been that he is trying to meld his new side into an effective unit and that fans cannot expect them to compete on the same terms as league leaders Arsenal or champions United.

Kenyon said last week the season would be considered a failure if Chelsea, third in the league and still in the FA Cup and Champions League, did not win a trophy.

So speculation over the Italian's job, which surfaced last year when England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson met Abramovich, flared again.

Ranieri, philosophical as ever, insists he will continue to coach in his own way. "I want to win. I am ambitious. Every time. Every match. But I cannot say we will win because Mr Abramovich has spent a lot of money.

"The chairman of Inter has changed 103 players and a lot of managers without winning anything. I want, maybe next season, maybe the end of 2007 that everybody remembers that Ranieri has worked very well," he said after Sunday's game.

The next fortnight could decide his future. On Sunday Chelsea play Arsenal in the FA Cup, followed by a premier league game against them and the first leg of a Champions League second-round tie against Stuttgart.

Ranieri, though, is unlikely to lose his sense of proportion. Football is entertainment after all.

"It's a show," he said last week. "Everything is a show."