New Chelsea signing Robinho will wear Shevhenko's No 7 shirt

Robinho will be handed Andriy Shevchenko's old No.7 shirt with his £28million move to Chelsea set to be completed by Friday.

The Real Madrid winger is expected to be unveiled by the weekend with the Blues even hopeful he will be registered in time to play against Spurs on Sunday.

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon last night insisted the club had no qualms about the substantial outlay on the Brazilian following flop Shevchenko's return to AC Milan.

The £30m Ukrainian had already experienced his best days before arriving at Stamford Bridge, but Kenyon reckons Robinho, 24, can emulate the improvement of Manchester United superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

He said: "I think he comes with real desire and wants to be recognised as one of the best players in the world.

"I know everyone does, but Robinho is different to what we have had. He's young, he's 24, so he's the right age, and he's come from Madrid so he understands what big club football is all about."

Robinho will take over as the Blues' costliest star but not far behind him are £25m Michael Essien, £24m Didier Drogba, £21m Shaun Wright-Phillips, £20m Ricardo Carvalho and, up front, £15m Nicolas Anelka.

Kenyon, however, revealed Chelsea will not pay Shevchenko's £125,000-a-week wages at Milan.

He also denied the club were forced to write off the £30m they spent on the 32-year-old marksman.

Kenyon added: "I get fed up because it's not right. I'm not giving a lesson on accountancy, but you do write money off over the term of a contract.

"What we pay is an investment, during that period you have a player who is doing a job and in this industry you buy and sell players."

Asked if Chelsea had received value for money from the Ukrainian, he added: "Yes, I do, I do. You have to look at these things pragmatically, sometimes these things don't work as well as you want them to.

"Remember, we got Deco for £8million and that looks to be the buy of the season."

Kenyon played down talk of an £80m swoop for AC Milan's Kaka this summer but revealed both Robinho and Deco had been earmarked by boss Luiz Felipe Scolari ever since the Blues recruited the Brazilian coach from the Portugal national team.

He said: "When we sat down, Scolari said: 'You've got such a great squad at Chelsea and you need something special to improve it'.

"He came up with two names, one was Deco and one was Robinho.

"He's still in Madrid but, hopefully, that will change over the next few days. I'm confident we will get it done and Robinho's absolutely committed to wanting to come.

"He understands we want him as a club and the coach is 100 per cent behind it - that's always a big point for the player."

Following Chelsea's hard-fought 1-0 win at Wigan on Sunday to make it two league wins out of two, Kenyon believes the squad is fitter than it was under Scolari's predecessor Avram Grant.

He added: "I think that's fair, this time last year we had an awful lot of injuries.

"They have got a new regime and the players have responded to that and we've got a new fitness coach and they work really closely with the medical department.

"There's no friction there and that's helped everybody because there is a common philosophy in the place.

"Scolari has built a complete team both on and off the field, and that's really come through in the way the team is harmonised and how we are playing."

Kenyon was speaking as local children had the chance to shine in front of Scolari as Chelsea revealed their second Corporate Responsibility Report (CSR).

Youngsters from all over West London joined Chelsea's Under-16 disability youth team girls, who play for their Centre of Excellence, and kids from one of their nominated charities, CLIC Sargent.

Kenyon added: "This is the other side of Chelsea. It's a real commitment, it's got depth to it, it's not a gimmick.

"I've always believed in the power of sport to reach out to communities and it is fantastic that Chelsea are taking their CSR role very seriously.

"The amounts invested by Chelsea, and the involvement of such a large number of people of all ages and backgrounds, show that Chelsea is leading the way in the development of community sport."

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