Chelsea appoint Villas-Boas

Chelsea have appointed FC Porto boss Andre Villas-Boas as their new manager in a record-breaking deal, a club statement announced on Wednesday.

The 33-year-old, who emerged as the front runner for the job after resigning as Porto coach on Tuesday, has signed a three year contract.

Villas-Boas not only becomes the youngest ever Premier League manager but also the most expensive coaching appointment ever after Chelsea paid Porto £13.3 million (15 million euros, $21.35m) to trigger the release clause in Villas-Boas’s contract.

Chelsea described Villas-Boas who led Porto to a domestic double and Europa League glory last season, as “the outstanding candidate for the job”.

“He is one of the most talented young managers in football today and has already achieved much in a relatively short space of time,” the club said.

They added: “His ambition, drive and determination matches that of Chelsea and we are confident Andre’s leadership of the team will result in greater successes in major domestic and European competitions.”

Villas-Boas, who replaces Carlo Ancelotti, is returning for a second spell at Stamford Bridge, having work as an asistant and scout under his mentor, Jose Mourinho.

Chelsea, trophyless last season, noted: “Andre will bring his coaching experience back to a club he is already very familiar with, having previously worked here for three years.

British media reports suggest Chelsea are paying Villas-Boas, who is their seventh manager in eight years, a salary of £4.5 million a year.

One of his first moves as the new Blues boss could be to sign Porto’s star striker Falcao, the £25million-rated Colombian who netted the only goal in Porto’s Europa League win over Sporting Braga in Dublin.

On Tuesday the way had been cleared for Villas-Boas to move back to London after he sent the club a fax informing them of his decision to join Chelsea.

Turkey coach Guus Hiddink had also been linked with a return to Chelsea, where he won the FA Cup as a caretaker manager in 2009.

Wednesday’s announcement brings to an end Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s search for the man he perceives as the right one to end the club’s recent trophy drought and crucially deliver Chelsea a long awaited first Champions League title.

Villas-Boas, who cut his coaching teeth under Sir Bobby Robson at Porto in 1993, served under Mourinho at Porto, then following ‘the Special One’ to Chelsea and later Inter Milan.

The Porto-born Villas-Boas was appointed manager of Academica in 2009 with the club then bottom of the Portuguese league.

He led them to an 11th-place finish and a cup semi-final.

In 2010 he joined Porto, winning the Portuguese SuperCup in his first term, and then the treble this year.

Porto were unbeaten in the league last season with 27 wins in 30 matches, becoming only the second Portuguese club to finish a league season unbeaten, after Benfica in 1972-73.

Porto have acted quickly to fill the void left by Villas-Boas by naming assistant coach Vitor Pereira as his successor

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Chelsea hires Villas-Boas as manager

LONDON, June 22 (AP): Chelsea hired Andre Villas-Boas as manager on a three-year contract on Wednesday, challenging the young Portuguese coach to land the one prize that eluded his mentor Jose Mourinho at the club-the Champions League.

The 33-year-old Villas-Boas became the seventh manager in eight years under Chelsea's billionaire Russian owner Roman Abramovich after resigning as coach of Porto on Tuesday.

Villas-Boas, who has just two seasons of topflight managerial experience behind him, returns to the London club where he worked as a scout between 2004-07 under Mourinho, his fellow countryman and a coach to whom he is often compared.

Mourinho won two English league titles in his three years with Chelsea but never the Champions League, the competition that has obsessed Abramovich ever since the oligarch bought the club in 2003.

That will be the goal demanded of Villas-Boas, branded by Chelsea as "one of the most talented young managers in football today" and a man who will bring fresh dynamism to a team that has become stale in recent seasons.

"His ambition, drive and determination matches that of Chelsea and we are confident Andre's leadership of the team will result in greater successes in major domestic and European competitions," Chelsea said in a statement.

Villas-Boas succeeds Carlo Ancelotti as manager at Stamford Bridge following the Italian coach's sacking on the final day of last season, despite winning the Premier League-FA Cup double the previous year.

Villas-Boas will start work immediately on a reported contract of 5 million pounds ($8 million) a year, with one of his first tasks to decide at what stage the team-featuring a number of aging stars like Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and John Terry-needs to be dismantled and rebuilt in his image.

He will be familiar with many of the current Chelsea squad following his three years at Stamford Bridge during a trophy-laden period for the club.

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Chelsea defend regular change of manager

Bangkok, June 17 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) ? Chelsea have defended the club's rapid turnover of managers in recent years with the chief executive saying it was results that mattered and a new team boss could be named within a week.

Ron Gourlay told Reuters in an interview that the Premier League club's hire-and-fire approach to managers -- after going through four in as many years -- had delivered the goods in terms of the number of trophies won.

"Continuity is very important but so is performance and results," said Gourlay, who was in Bangkok on Thursday to promote the club's pre-season Asian tour.

"Our model may not be the model others agree with but at the end of the day, we've taken the decisions we felt we needed to take to develop Chelsea Football Club... and we've won 10 major trophies in the last six years."

Gourlay declined to comment on whether Turkey's Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, was being lined up to replace sacked Italian Carlo Ancelotti but said several candidates had been looked at.

"The process of getting a new coach is going very, very well. I'd expect a new coach to hopefully be in place within the next week, maybe two weeks, but maybe even earlier," he said.

BELT-TIGHTENING

Gourlay also said the club planned to tighten their belt and generate fresh revenue to comply with new UEFA finance rules.

He said Chelsea would have no problem adhering to new financial fair play regulations devised by European soccer's governing body aimed at stopping clubs from borrowing vast sums to buy success and spending more than their income.

ANALYSIS on the financial fair play rules [ID:nLDE7581LB]

Chelsea posted a loss of 71 million pounds ($114.8 million) in June last year and spent an equivalent amount in January on Spain striker Fernando Torres and Brazil defender David Luiz that was Arsenal manger Arsene Wenger said was "logic-defying". [ID:nLDE7110YU]

Gourlay said the struggling Torres was a "fantastic signing" but Chelsea, like most clubs, must in future control spending and balance the books by nurturing more home-grown talent and generating new revenue sources without raising ticket prices.

UEFA's new financial regulations will be applied from the reporting period starting at the end of next year.

"Performances on the field help drive a lot of the revenue off the field so you have to get the balance right, look at the costs, control wages going forward," he said.

"Squads may not be as big as in the past and we have to get the youngsters through the academy and, when that happens, it takes a bit of the pressure off."

GLOBAL FOOTPRINT

Part of the remedy was to expand Chelsea's global footprint with Asia seen as a key market with huge growth potential.

The club was working hard to lure more Asian sponsors, raise Chelsea's profile by launching more "Blue Pitch" development programmes, offering up the expertise of its coaches and sending youth and first-team squads to play in Asia.

He said the club was already active in Thailand, Malaysia and Hong Kong and planned to expand into Japan, South Korea and China, Gourlay added.

Hourlay described Chelsea's failure to win a trophy last season after finishing nine points adrift of champions Manchester United as a huge disappointment, adding that the squad would be "freshened up" before the start of the new campaign though he would not be drawn on potential signings.

"Unfortunately, we just left ourselves at the end with too much to do," he said of the title race.

"The expectation was so high after winning the double (in 2010), our most successful year, so it was a disappointing season but we need to remain very, very confident, the club must continue to develop, we must not change our strategy."

Chelsea will play pre-season matches in Thailand, Hong Kong and Malaysia in late July.

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