PORTO coach Andre Villas-Boas is the red-hot 'favourite' to become new Chelsea boss after several leading bookmakers suspended betting on the man referred to as mini-Mourinho.
Porto's in-demand coach was one of Jose Mourinho's backroom staff at Stamford Bridge and has had considerable success as a manager in his own right, leading his Portuguese club to a league and Europa League double last season.
Portugal's national news agency Lusa reported that Villa-Boas was poised to take over from Carlo Ancelotti and suggestions were that he would become Chelsea coach with previous leading candidate for the job Guus Hiddink securing a director of football role.
But Porto issued a brief written response saying that no club has, as yet, activated the �13million release clause in their manager's contract and that the man himself has made no mention of a desire to move.
The statement said: "So far [the club] has received no information that the clause will be activated nor the coach's willingness for it to happen."
Over the weekend Porto president Pinto da Costa had fought off interest in his man from Italian giants Inter, revealing the price tag on the manager's head.
Da Costa said: "Villas-Boas has a contract and a release clause of 15million euros.
"If someone deposits that in our account and he wants to go, we can do nothing because it is something that is contractually specified.
"If it does not happen then he will not be going anywhere and we will not do anything to make any negotiations easy.
"Nothing happens unless someone pays the money and he wants to go."
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