Damien Duff's Chelsea challenge: Emmet Malone hears Chelsea's boss enthuse about his 'blond speed boy', and insist it was his decision to go after the talented Dubliner.

Doubts may persist about Claudio Ranieri's ability to dictate the course of the so-called revolution underway at Chelsea but within a matter of seconds of the coach starting to talk about Damien Duff it is clear the Irishman's arrival at Stamford Bridge is not a Swedish-inspired surprise to the quiet-spoken Italian.

It has been claimed the former Napoli coach has exerted little influence on the club's recent transfer dealings, with Sven Goran Eriksson's well known admiration for Glen Johnson and Wayne Bridge, as well as his well publicised friendship with Roman Abramovich, amounting to an open and shut case in the eyes of many Chelsea watchers.

But when the subject of the young Ireland international is brought up Ranieri's admiration shines through. "Ask Colin Hutchison," he says quickly, "and he will tell you that Damien is one of the players I spoke often to him about, but without money..."

"He is my kind of player," he says effusively. "I chose him because he is direct. When he gets the ball he is very clever. Whether he goes to cross or to shoot, or to go one-on-one or to pass he is always looking to take a problem on head on and that is my philosophy. He will be very good for my team."

He seems slightly embarrassed he can't recall the first time he saw his new winger play but he remembers well the impression made by the "blond speed boy". Even so, he maintains the £17 million man's best is very much yet to come.

"I like him very much, but, of course, what I don't like I will try to improve," he says. "I work very hard, in training every day, always looking for the maximum, but if he follows me then I think Damien will arrive at the top of the world because the raw material is fantastic."

Already the Italian has been impressed by the new arrival's eagerness to play. "When he signed I told him to stay and work with Desailly, Gallas and Geremi who had all been at the Confederations Cup. But he came to Malaysia anyway and I was delighted to see him play for us there, even if we could not ask as much of him as we could of the players who had been training longer.

"He knows, though, he is my first choice. I cannot tell any player he will play from the start of the season to the end but I told Damien he is number one for me and that I know he can do great things for me here."

Duff himself laughs the claim off. "Yeah he told me that," he says, "but every manager says that until it's time to pick the team."

After establishing an enviable reputation at Blackburn and on the international stage with Ireland Duff knows his considerable self-confidence is built on firm ground. He nonetheless fears spending more time on the Chelsea bench than he would ever would have considered acceptable at Rovers.

"I'm not all that bothered about the money side of things but I hope with time I can show I'm worth all of the terms of my contract, and more besides. Mainly, though, I just hope to play because that's what I love doing and I hate sitting on the bench.

"I keep saying to people that staying at Blackburn would have been the easy option and I would have been sure of playing every week but arriving into this place today and going up to Ewood Park, it's a different world and it was something I had to take on.

"That's what everybody said to me when we were talking about the move. They said I'd worked very hard to get to this point and I should give it a lash. It's a club that's looking to win things (Ranieri said earlier that a championship within two years was a realistic target) and there's the Champions League; I've been watching Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle in it every week for years and it's the place to be."

Most of all, he insists again, "I just want to get the ball rolling, get in the team and play football."

Squad rotation, he concedes, may be a fact of his new life but he leaves no doubt the relentless workload at Blackburn may be one of the things he misses most about the place.

His new manager is adamant he wants Duff to play as much as possible but says that with so many games it is inevitable the young Irishman will need to be rested from time to time. Injury is another consideration and the Italian has released a team of physicians on the new arrival with a view to sorting out his recurring hamstring problem.

Duff admits the injury that forced him to sit out Ireland's game against Georgia in June was probably his own fault, with his decision to rest so much between the end of the Premiership and the two international games causing him problems as soon as he started to tire against Albania. Now, his "little problem," as Ranieri describes it, is an obsession for the vast medical staff that reside off Fulham Broadway.

"They're all fascinated by it. I have about 20 different people prodding it every day," he sighs. "They're starting to work on my posture ... I'm actually sitting wrong right now. In fact, I don't walk right, I don't breathe right. My whole mechanics, that's where my whole hamstring problems comes from and the Italians have a way of dealing with this sort of stuff that's completely different to anything I've ever experienced."

A fit Duff should prosper hugely under Ranieri, who insists his new man's abundance of talent will enable him to play "everywhere" in the team.

The player himself knows all about the coach's enthusiasm for fielding teams that possess width but, he says, "it's not as if I just want to stand out there on the wing, if you do that you can get isolated, games can pass you by and I think I've always wanted to get inside and play off the front two when I can.

"I'd like to think that I can contribute a few goals too, I managed 10 plus in each of the last couple of seasons and it's something that I work on a lot."

And work, he quietly insists, is what he has come here to do. "Everyone's going on about me being some sort of country boy but I believe I'm ready for this. Yeah, London's totally different, a lot more hectic, but I'm here for the football not the nightlife. I don't see the difference with being down here. Of course, there's plenty of distractions but they become a problem if you let them."

With that Neil Barnett, Chelsea's press officer appears, to provide what is probably a welcome distraction for Duff from the business at hand.

"The players must go training," he says politely and the club's most expensive player ever jumps eagerly to his feet.

"That'll do yiz," he grins and he's off. Just another Irishman in London on his way way to work.