Villas-Boas reveals Di Matteo hiring

In his first press conference as Chelsea manager, Andre Villas-Boas has unveiled former West Brom boss Roberto di Matteo as his assistant.

Villas-Boas was officially presented to the media at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, having taken over from Carlo Ancelotti after a successful one-year stint with Porto.

As his first act, the 33-year-old has assembled a front-room staff he believes will instil an attacking, entertaining brand of football to win the trophies craved by Blues owner Roman Abramovich.

Chief to that aim is new assistant coach Di Matteo, who was sacked as manager of English Premier League rivals West Bromwich Albion in February.

Di Matteo spent six seasons as a midfielder at Chelsea, winning two FA Cups, the Cup Winners Cup and the League Cup before injury forced him into an early retirement in 2002.

“If you see the technical staff in front of me, and my appointment of Roberto, these are people who like the quality of the game and have a philosophy,” Villas-Boas said.

“It’s not just a case of winning; it’s a case of flair.”

“Everyone likes attacking football and the Premier League has a certain amount of goals in every game and it should be an entertaining game for the fans and that is what we will look to do.”

Villas-Boas is aware he is under pressure to succeed at Stamford Bridge given Abramovich paid a hefty 13.2-million-pound release clause to Porto in order to secure his arrival.

“The expectations are for the maximum. We want to win trophies – that is the challenge we face day by day in any business,” Villas-Boas said.

“Everyone wants to be the best and win something and the challenge is to win as soon as possible and to build a platform for the future.”

“This is nothing different from any other club. The challenge in your everyday life is to be successful in what you do and that is the challenge I face here.”

Villas-Boas is a former assistant to Jose Mourinho, who dubbed himself the ‘Special One’ after joining the English side in 2004.

Aware of the clamour to nickname Chelsea’s latest manager, the Portuguese suggested he be dubbed the ‘Group One’ for his focus of collaboration and team spirit.

“Listen, I will wait for you guys to give me the title when I am successful,” he said.

“I hope to be successful and I hope you get a good title in the end.”

“This is not a one-man show. This is a question of creating empathy and motivations and ambitions and raising ambitions in everybody in every sense – not only the players, but the staff that surrounds me and all of the people of this organisation.”

“I will take it from there. Maybe I should be called the ‘Group One’. I want to group people together to be successful and that is my objective.”