CHELSEA have told City – You can’t compete with us!

The Londoners have had their FIFA imposed transfer ban suspended by the Court of Arbitration for Sport and are once again ready to challenge City's spending power.

And in a dig at Sheikh Mansour's Eastlands revolution, new Chelsea chief executive, Ron Gourlay, has questioned whether City will ever become a global force.

He accepts Mark Hughes’ side could be ready to break into the Big Four, but doubts they will ever match the world-wide appeal of United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.

Gourlay said: “Manchester City, a threat? With the players they have, they’re certainly going to try to push their way into the top five.

“Commercially it’s not that easy. They’re very much a Manchester-centric club. To break into the big world and start
developing your business in Asia and in the US you need to really start winning some trophies, and not just the Premier League.

Record

“They can attain it with consistency over the next few years. But there are one or two others out there who may something to say about that.”

City were allowed to boss the transfer market in the summer, signing Emanuel Adebayor and Carlos Tevez for a combined £50m, while Robinho was a British record £32.5m when signed from Real Madrid last year.

The Brazilian could now be a Chelsea target in January and Gourlay says Roman Abramovich is ready to splash the cash once again at Stamford Bridge.

“We have the money if we want to spend it,” said Gourlay.

They now look set to be able to trade in the January transfer window after the Court of Arbitration agreed to suspend their FIFA-imposed transfer ban until a final decision is made in the case of the signing of Gael Kakuta.

FIFA banned the Blues from any transfer activity for the next two periods of transfer activity in early September after they were found guilty of inducing Kakuta to breach his contract with French club Lens.

Appeal

Chelsea appealed to CAS against the punishment and, as part of their appeal, requested the transfer ban be 'stayed' until the case had been dealt with.

A statement from CAS today read: “The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has granted the request for a stay filed by Chelsea Football Club Ltd and Mr Gael Kakuta in relation to the decision taken by the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber on 27 August 2009.

“The FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber imposed, inter alia, a restriction of four months' ineligibility on Mr Gael Kakuta, and Chelsea Football Club Ltd was banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for the next two complete, consecutive registration periods. Such sanctions are now stayed until the CAS renders its final decision in this matter.”

CAS are not expected to hear the case until the new year, which should leave Chelsea free to buy and sell as normal in January.