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Villas-Boas admits to Mourinho return fear
Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas has admitted that the possibility of Jose Mourinho being available in the summer has made him nervous about his own position at the club.
Mourinho caused a stir last weekend, after reports emerged indicating the Real Madrid manager had grown tired of life at the Spanish club and would look for a job in England - where he spent three successful years with the Blues - at the end of the current campaign.
Villas-Boas has seen first-hand how clubs clamour for Mourinho's signature whenever he is looking for a new job - having been a member of his backroom staff at Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan prior to treading his own managerial path - and admits that he would worry about the chances of his mentor making a return to Stamford Bridge at his expense.
"At the moment, there is not a vacancy at this club, that is the most important thing," Villas-Boas said. "And the Real Madrid manager is not available at the moment. He's tied to the best club in the world.
"The only thing I can say is that I have lived Jose's availability when we were out of Chelsea and we know and I know how many clubs came knocking on our doors.
"So, a manager of Jose's dimension and the number one in the world will always be an attractive target for whatever club."
With a return to the Premier League believed to be a priority for Mourinho, Villas-Boas believes a number of managers around the league will share his concern about their own job security.
"Because he's a manager that makes himself available to return to his beloved England will for sure capture the interests of City, United and Chelsea and Tottenham and Liverpool and Arsenal, and so on and so forth," he added. "So, in that sense, we are all under pressure, from [Roberto] Mancini to [Sir Alex] Ferguson to me to [Kenny] Dalglish to Harry Redknapp and so on."
More immediately, however, Villas-Boas has to focus on getting his team ready to face Manchester United over the weekend. With John Terry absent through injury he has to evaluate whether to give Gary Cahill his first Blues start - and also identify who will replace the suspended Ashley Cole at left-back.
"First, we cannot be crying out," Villas-Boas said. "Man United will miss players for sure, important players. We have important players out as well but we have a very big squad, which enables us to go on and try to win the game and approach it in a positive way.
"So that's what we'll try to do, whoever is involved."
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