Special One II: Villas-Boas 'on way to Chelsea'

Chelsea are closing in on a sensational deal to appoint Andre Villas-Boas.
The Porto manager has a £13.2million release clause in his contract, which Blues owner Roman Abramovich is believed to have activated.
Villas-Boas is now understood to be on his way to London to discuss taking over from sacked Carlo Ancelotti. Chelsea are hopeful of completing the deal this week with an unveiling set for soon afterwards.

The 33-year-old is widely regarded as the next Jose Mourinho given the similarities in his incredible rise with Porto. Villas-Boas also worked in Mourinho's backroom team during his spell at Stamford Bridge.
Should the follow in his mentor's footsteps, he will become the Premier League's youngest manager, more than half the age of Sir Alex Ferguson and in fact younger than Frank Lampard.
A Chelsea spokesman 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.'

Reports first surfaced this morning in the Portuguese reports, where A Bola also claimed in-demand striker Radamel Falcao would follow Villas-Boas to west London.
Should that deal materialise, it would bear a striking ressemblance to Mourinho's switch after he too brought with him Porto's star attraction, Ricardo Carvalho.
Colombian striker Falcao has been heavilly linked with Tottenham and Arsenal and is valued at around £26m.

Inter Milan were also interested in luring Villas-Boas but they have refused to pay his huge release fee.

Porto president Pinta da Costa has already admitted he is resigned to eventually losing his star manager.

He said: 'Villas-Boas has a contract and a clause of €15m. If someone deposits €15million into our account and he wants to go, we can not do anything because it is something that is contractually specified.'

It is not yet clear whether Villas-Boas, who is set to earn around £5m a year (the same as Mourinho did at Chelsea), has been targeted to work alongside Guus Hiddink, who has been at the centre of a tug-of-war between Chelsea and his current employers Turkey.

However, Hiddink may well assume a sporting director role with Villas-Boas in charge of coaching and team selection at the Barclays Premier League runners-up.




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