Rafael Benitez has been appointed as the new manager of Chelsea until the end of the season, the club has confirmed.
Benitez replaces Roberto Di Matteo, who was sacked on Wednesday morning following Chelsea's disappointing 3-0 defeat at Juventus which leaves them on the brink of being knocked out of the Champions League.
Former Liverpool boss Benitez cut short an engagement in the Middle East to fly to London for talks and he has been appointed as "interim" manager until the end of the current campaign.
A statement on the club's website said: "Chelsea Football Club can confirm Rafael Benitez has been appointed interim first-team manager until the end of the season.
"The owner and the Board believe that in Benitez we have a manager with significant experience at the highest level of football, who can come in and immediately help deliver our objectives.
"The 52-year-old Spaniard is due to meet the players at the training ground in Cobham tomorrow (Thursday).
"The two-time UEFA Manager of the Year comes with outstanding pedigree. He began his managerial career in his homeland, most notably at Valencia where he built a reputation as one of Europe's top coaches by winning the Spanish League twice and the UEFA Cup.
"He then spent six years at Liverpool and led them to their fifth European Cup and an FA Cup."
More to follow...
Update:
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what do you think?
Iain Kemble
maybe torres will do better with a well known manager to him.
ruta rybakiene
Looking forward to more banter with Fergie !
Ian Scott
Come on Chelsea , sort it out
philpdavid
One for today, Outbid 1.55 Lingfield 7/1 ish is EW price on the books, and a nice place bet on the Exchange 7/4 ish.
shirley sutton
8:45pm on 21/11/2012
well all the players will be sold within the year same as he did at liverpool - won the champions league on team he inherited and then got rid of the lot apart from gerrard and carragher and never won anything again
Mark Hussey
9:55pm on 21/11/2012
Fa cup lol
mark smith
12:38am on 22/11/2012
Only won 2 la ligas without managing Barca or Madrid plus the Spanish cup the FA cup the super cup and the world club challenge oh and the champions league with probably the worst playing staff ever to win it also runners up in it with HIS team Shirley and runners up in the league with a points total that would have won it 4 times out of the last 6 seasons! But hey Shirley you sound like a typical Chelsea fan getting on the managers back before he has even had his 1st day in the job! A plastic club with plastic fans! FACT!!
Dave Brooks
4:53pm on 22/11/2012
Dont think liverpool fans can knock chelsea fans seeing the way they hounded Hodgeson out of Anfield