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Excellent news, everyone. Chelsea have a new manager!
33-year-old Andre Villas Boas has signed a three-year contract (rumours were floating around earlier that he'll be paid around €5M a season) to manage Chelsea FC, ending a three day chase that saw him move from dark horse to clear frontrunner for the position made vacant by the firing of Carlo Ancelotti at the end of last season. With Porto confirming that their manager had left and Chelsea saying they were in negotiations with him on personal terms, this hardly comes as a surprise, but the official confirmation is always nice to have, and now AVB can get to grips with retooling a squad in desperate need of help.
It's entirely unclear how he'll go about doing this, but considering the line we were fed by the media about how likely Villas Boas was to be joining Chelsea until just a few days ago, one has to imagine that the Blues are keeping their real targets close to the chest. One thing's for sure though - things are just getting started. Here's Chelsea's official statement:
Chelsea Football Club is delighted to announce that Andre Villas-Boas will be the club's new manager.
He has signed a three-year contract and will start work immediately.
Andre was 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. 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.
Andre will bring his coaching experience back to a club he is already very familiar with, having previously worked here for three years. He has always been highly regarded at Chelsea and everyone here looks forward to welcoming him back and working with him.
Which is a marked contrast to We Ain't Got No History's official statement:
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Time to get excited about next season, methinks. We've done a lot of writing on Villas Boas already, so I don't really need to see the need to add to it at this time with a profile or anything, but suffice to say that I thoroughly believe that he is the best possible man to lead Chelsea into a new decade. Bring it on, everyone.