Peter Kenyon has increased the pressure on José Mourinho even before the new season starts by admitting that Chelsea will not be considered a leading club until they have won the Champions League. In a recent mission statement, the chief executive spelt out Chelsea’s grand ambition to become “internationally recognised as the world’s No 1 club by 2014”, but Kenyon has conceded that achievements on the pitch are more important than mere marketing rhetoric.

Chelsea have been beaten in the semi-finals of the Champions League in three of the past four years and winning the trophy for the first time has become an obsession at the club. Mourinho ruefully refers to their two semi-final defeats by Liverpool on a regular basis and is aware of the huge expectations at Stamford Bridge after a summer in which he only narrowly held on to his job. Bruce Buck, the Chelsea chairman, has made it clear that winning only the FA Cup and Carling Cup last season was unacceptable and Kenyon has seen fit to remind the manager of his responsibilities.

“I think it [the European Cup] is one of the hardest trophies to pick up and 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 what we’ve said is you have to win trophies on a regular basis. You have to win the Premier League and Champions League more than once to reach those heights of being truly recognised as a world club and we’re well equipped.”

Kenyon went on to praise Mourinho as the prototype of a modern manager, although he admitted that there were doubts about his future last season. A fragile peace settlement was brokered at a meeting between Mourinho and Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, last month, but the new accord is unlikely to last if Chelsea do not make a good start to the season.

Mourinho has mooted the idea of signing an extension to his contract, which expires in 2010, but after the internal unrest of recent seasons the club have resolved to reexamine his position on an annual basis. The board has been pleasantly surprised with the good grace with which Mourinho has accepted the controversial appointment of Avram Grant as director of football, although further potential for strife exists in the shape of Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack.

The Ukraine striker has slipped farther down the pecking order after a disappointing preseason disrupted by a back injury, while Ballack’s future is also unclear in the 4-3-3 formation Mourinho plans to use this season.

Chelsea are aware of interest in both players from AC Milan and Real Madrid respectively, but, given their huge financial outlay last summer, they are determined to keep hold of them.

“On the Andriy and Michael situation, we signed them for four years and we’ve definitely got the best to come from those two players, which is great news,” Kenyon said. “I think it’s critically important José’s still here and I think it comes off a season when we got to a stage where nobody thought that José would be here apart from the people inside the club.”

With Shevchenko and Ballack injured, Mourinho is facing the first test of his newly mellow nature after being disappointed with the contribution of John Obi Mikel during Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Brondby. The Nigeria mid-field player was substituted after half an hour because of his inability to carry out the manager’s wishes and faces a battle to restore his reputation before Sunday’s FA Community Shield meeting with Manchester United at Wembley.