28/04/2004
Chelsea line up Mourinho, Ronaldo and Beckham

Mourinho was reported to have confirmed he would be taking over from Claudio Ranieri but Chelsea sources said he had yet to close a 4.5 million pound a year deal with club owner Roman Abramovich.

And Porto president Nuno Pinto da Costa warned Abramovich he would go to war over the move.

Porto have accused Chelsea of illegally approaching Mourinho about the prospect of taking over from Ranieri in the summer and da Costa insists he will not sit back and watch his coach leave.

"I want to make it clear that we will go to war with Chelsea over Mourinho. We will bring in UEFA, FIFA - whoever we need to," he told Daily Star.

"The attitude of the Russian (Abramovich) is the worst I have seen in the football world. He thinks that after buying Chelsea he can do what he wants and skip all the established rules."

Abramovich bought Chelsea for 140 million pounds last July and the Russian oil billionaire splashed out the same amount on new players.

But they have lost out to Arsenal in the English Premiership chase and face a Champions League semi-final exit at the hands of Monaco after losing the first leg 3-1.

But Porto were also reported to be set to offer Real Madrid coach Carlos Queiroz their job as the Portuguese was expected to be sacked by the Spanish giants in the summer after failing to do what Real president Florentino Perez signed him for -- "win things".

They were knocked out of the Champions League by Monaco and trail Valencia in the Spanish league.

And Perez was expected to be ready to listen to an offer for his Brazil World Cup winner and England captain, whose celebrity lifestyle has taken the club by surprise, to fund another foray into the transfer market with presidential elections due this summer.

"Yes, Chelsea are thinking of Ronaldo and Beckham," admitted Ranieri.

"There is only one person in the world who can try to take them from Florentino Perez and he is called Roman Abramovich."