According to reports in Portugal, the best young manager in football, Andre Villas-Boas has accepted an offer to become manager of Chelsea. Chelsea have reportedly agreed to pay the £13.2m release clause to get Villas-Boas out of his contract with Porto.
Porto president Pinto da Costa said the club could not prevent Villas-Boas leaving should certain financial conditions be met.
“Villas-Boas has a contract and a clause of 15m euros,” he confirmed. “If someone deposits 15m euros into our account and he wants to go, we can not do anything because it is something that is contractually specified.”
A Chelsea statement said:
“We hope to be able to make an announcement regarding the new manager in the next few days or so, but until then we will not be commenting further on the speculation surrounding that appointment.”
Villas-Boas is a mini-Mourinho who worked under the “Special One” at Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan. Last season he led Porto to a domestic double plus the Europa League trophy this past season.
He has a terrific reputation and is a great signing for Chelsea. With Villas-Boas on board, I would expect then that Guus Hiddink will become Chelsea’s Director of Football.
What do you think about Chelsea hiring Andre Villas-Boas?