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This morning Andre Villas-Boas held his first press conference after being appointed manager of Chelsea FC. Chelsea legend Roberto Di Matteo joined him, as he unveiled Di Matteo as new assistant first team coach.

AVB's team so far: Di Matteo (AM), Jose Mario Rocha (fitness coach), Daniel Sousa (opposition scout), former Chelsea Reserves coach Steve Holland (AM) and Christophe Lollichon (goalkeeping coach).



On transfers: "I don't see why any manager shouldn't be in control of transfers. Hopefully that will happen like it would at any other club."

He will not be making any decisions on players' futures until July 6, when the full squad returns from their summer break. "We have plenty of time in the market to judge the market and approach it in the way we see valuable for the team in the end, with no fuss in the changes we might need to do or not. They are top quality players and I want them back as soon as possible to start making decisions as soon as possible."

"We need to be wise when we move. This is a club that everyone wants to play for.

"All of them are interesting players - [Luka] Modric, Falcao and [Fabio] Coentrao. All of them are top quality players, if they can add to the squad or not I will prefer to make the decision after, on those or any other players we shortlist."

AVB insists he wants to keep Michael Essien and Didier Drogba at Stamford Bridge.


On Fernando Torres: "We faced this question more or less last year when we arrived in Porto with a striker the quality of Falcao, so it is the same. In pre-season he didn't find the back of the net and ended up frustrated in the beginning. We didn't tune the team to provide to him, we tuned the team as a whole and in the end Falcao found the net and built on to another 30-goal season, and 60 goals in two seasons, so this is a question of fine-tuning the team, not fine-tuning a player so this is what we will try to do."


On his move and Porto: "Porto were ready to beat Chelsea's offer. Even so, I accepted the challenge."

Villas-Boas says he made the move from Porto to Chelsea "against the will of everybody, and against the will of my family".


On winning trophies: "The amount of trophies we won in the last six years is a good reference to start from. Trying to push ourselves this year will be a massive challenge. The most important thing is to raise players' ambitions and motivations to be successful. From the experience I have they are able to do it, I spoke to a couple of them on the phone and they are willing to come back and start this new life. Most of them told me this is a fresh new start and they are willing."

"I just don't agree on the fact we are short of quality because most of the players here have won a lot in their careers and still have the hunger for success."

"At a club like Chelsea, I will be expected to win games each week straight away. There's no hiding from that."


On being 'the special one': "Maybe I should be called 'the group one'. I aim to bring the team together."


On his age (33): "I think the players are responsible and will respect the position of manager."


On working under a technical director/director of football: "I have no problem working [under these]. Over the next few weeks you will have more."


On captaincy: "When John is available for sure he will take the captaincy as long as he challenges for a place as any other player challenges for a place. He is the reference of captaincy for this club for the last years, as well as Lampard, as well as Petr Cech. [...] John represents the successful history of this club in the last six or seven years and for sure will continue to be like that."


On himself and his role: "I don't see myself yet as a successful manager."

"I'm not a confrontational guy. I'm just a guy to sit down with you and share my ideas."

"We are proud defenders of the beauty of the game. It makes no sense to play dreadful football at a club like this."


sources: chelseafc.com, @bridgeviews, @blueschronicle and myself




WATCH THE PRESS CONFERENCE HERE