Those Andre Villas Boas rumours just got a lot more real sounding - first A Bola confirmed that the Porto manager was in negotiations with Chelsea for their managerial vacancy and then President Pinto da Costa admitted that thanks to the release clause in Villas Boas' contract he was powerless to stop him leaving if he wanted to go.

The cynic would point out that negotiations are just negotiations and that there's no guarantee that Villas Boas would want to move back to Stamford Bridge, and they'd be quite right. However, that isn't where the rumours end. Check this out:

Jornal de Notícias, Record, & Agência Lusa have *confirmed* that André Villas Boas is to depart Porto for Chelsea. I think it's happening... Ben Shave

cahiers_dusport

Based on that, it sounds for all the world like Chelsea have just hired Andre Villas Boas to be their new manager. Obviously this won't be official official until the club has announced it, and the most reputable Portuguese source in A bola hasn't picked it up yet, but this looks fairly close to water-tight. Suddenly that delay after the Hiddink business makes sense, doesn't it?

If the Blues announce a Hiddink/Villas Boas sporting director/manager team I think I'll forgive them for taking so long to get around to filling the vacancy. This would be an absolute dream pairing of appointments. Fingers crossed, eh?