English Press: Chelsea To Swoop For Rijkaard?

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English newspaper 'The Daily Mail' has reported that Henk Ten Cate's imminent appointment at Stamford Bridge is just phase one of Roman Abramovich's plan to rebuild Chelsea. Later will come the appointment of Frank Rijkaard as coach...


The Daily Mail claims that Frank Rijkaard could take charge of Chelsea next summer, should the Stamford Bridge hierarchy have their way.

The English newspaper cites expert sources in Holland, who claim that Rijkaard is on the way out of Barcelona at the end of this current campaign, at which point Chelsea will make their move.

The paper quotes one insider as saying, "It is an open secret in Holland that this is Rijkaard's last season at Barcelona. He will move to Chelsea as coach, with Henk Ten Cate as his assistant and [Avram] Grant back as director of football."

With Rijkaard's much-vaunted former assistant, Henk Ten Cate, set to take the assistant role to Grant within the next two weeks, the stage could be set for a dramatic reunion for the pair that won both the Spanish and European titles with the blaugrana.

Avram Grant, meanwhile, has endured a mixed start to his tenure as first team coach, with many aside from the aforementioned source feeling that he will be "moved upstairs" once again into a Director of Football role sooner rather than later.

The article also claimed that Chelsea are on the verge of a January swoop for Jan-Klaas Huntelaar of Ajax.