No barca move for Cesc

Barcelona test Arsenal's resolve with £27m Fabregas bid - but the London club have turned it down

Forlan linked to Spurs

Manchester United close to signing Aston Villa winger Ashley Young

The final hurdle(medical tests) before the completion of his £16 million move.

What makes the Chelsea manager tick?

Tactics

Andre Villas-Boas tires quickly of the comparisons with Jose Mourinho — he insists he is his own man. This is best reflected in the way he sets out his teams.

Taking his cue from Sir Bobby Robson and Pep Guardiola, Villas-Boas likes attack-minded sides. In the Europa League final he played an aggressive 4-3-3, with Falcao, Hulk and Silvestre Varela as his front three and Joao Moutinho as the playmaker behind.

This team pressed hard and broke at speed and it is this positive, expansive style that appeals to Roman Abramovich, who is smitten by Guardiola’s Barcelona. 

Man management

You might think, being just 33, he would seek some distance from his players but Villas-Boas, much like Mourinho, forges strong intimate bonds with his charges. 

Preparation

He would provide Mourinho with dossiers and help put together DVDs for the players. He remains au fait with all the latest technological developments in data analysis and used it at Porto but also sets more store in his intuitive responses to situations these days. He has become a perfectionist who trusts his instincts.

Recruitment

This is the area in which Villas-Boas is relatively untested. At Porto he inherited a very strong team from the previous coach, Jesualdo Ferreira, and while he certainly improved the players he found, he did not have to assemble a team.

There is work to be done to reform Chelsea’s ageing squad so he will be tested in this area. Like Mourinho did with Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira, Villas-Boas could well return to Porto to bring the likes of Falcao and Moutinho to Stamford Bridge.

Much will depend on the relationship he builds with whoever comes in as chief scout or director of football (Chelsea are still open-minded in this regard).

Before he decided to leave to take the job at Chelsea he recommended a list of players to Porto, four of whom the Portuguese club have already signed. Most impressive is the capture of Juan Manuel Iturbe, the 18-year-old Argentine who has been compared to Lionel Messi.

Success of Chelsea under the new boss

“It is a massive individual challenge which I felt I should take,” he said. “It is a big, big step, I am confident that I can respond to Chelsea’s expectations and we can focus on the four trophies that we have to win. I am pretty much confident that people will like it. This is a new leadership, a new communication, a new way of being."

Chelsea breaks the bank yet again

Andre Villas-Boas

Chelsea pay Porto £13.3m to make Andre Villas-Boas their new manager and the priciest in the world.

Didier Drogba tied the knot.

Didier Drogba married Lalla Diakite in Monacy in a state of relative privacy.

Fabregas joining Barcelona FC ?

"He needs to play for one of the best teams in the world which is Barcelona. One can understand that. But for the moment he's still our captain at Arsenal."_Sagna 


So does this mean that Arsenal are a "Second Grade Team"?