Soccer:Chelsea hope to appoint Andre Villas-Boas as their new manager after the Premier League club completed a compensation payment - believed to be €15million - to Portuguese side Porto.
Villas-Boas tendered his resignation with the Portuguese champions earlier today and within hours confirmation of the receipt of the compensation payment paves the way for the Portuguese coach to move on to a new club.
Chelsea this evening confirmed their intention to install the 33-year-old as the replacement for Carlo Ancelotti, who was unceremoniously axed at the end of last season just 12 months after guiding the club to a league and FA Cup double.
"We note that the release clause of Andre Villas-Boas has been activated," a Chelsea club statement read. "We can at this time confirm our interest in him and hope to reach agreement with him on personal terms and make a further announcement in the near future."
At just 33-years-old, VIllas-Boas will become the youngest manager in the Premier League should he complete a move to west London.
Earlier Porto issued a statement to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission which read: "FC Porto was notified of the intention of Andre Villas-Boas to resign from his contract with the club by triggering the release clause immediately.
"The contract will be terminated once the required amount is paid."
Villas-Boas, who led Porto to the domestic double and Europa League success last season, has worked for Chelsea before as part of Jose Mourinho's backroom staff and speaks good English.
If he does succeed Ancelotti one of his first moves could be to sign Porto's star striker Falcao, the €30m-rated Colombian having impressed as the Dragons won the Europa League final at Dublin's Aviva Stadium, where the 25-year-old netted the only goal against Braga.
With Chelsea having stepped up their pursuit of the former Academica boss, question marks now surround the future of Guus Hiddink.
The Dutchman, who enjoyed a successful spell as caretaker boss of Chelsea in 2009, was thought to be in line for a return to Stamford Bridge, although reports have suggested he would prefer to remain as a coach and not move upstairs into a sporting director role.
His agent today threw up an alternative by refusing to dismiss a link with Inter Milan, who themselves had been interested in Villas-Boas.
The coaching role at the San Siro is likely to be vacated by Leonardo shortly, with the former AC Milan boss poised to become Paris St Germain's new sporting director.
Inter have been frustrated in their attempts to recruit Sinisa Mihajlovic, Marcelo Bielsa and now Villas-Boas but Cees van Nieuwenhuizen said Hiddink, currently in charge of the Turkish national side, "would evaluate" Inter's offer should the Nerazzurri reach an agreement with his current employers.
"We have never spoken to (Inter president Massimo) Moratti," Van Nieuwenhuizen told the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper. "Hiddink has a contract with the Turkish federation and therefore before any talks can begin, Moratti must contact the (Turkish) federation and say he is interested in Guus.
"He is contracted until 2012 so, for the time being, there is no possibility that he can coach Inter. If Inter reached an agreement with Turkey? Well at that point Hiddink would certainly evaluate the Nerazzurri offer but he is a professional and he has never broken a contract in his whole career."
