Chelsea lining up McClaren

Soccer Managerial moves: Chelsea will turn to Steve McClaren to be their next manager should their overtures to Porto manager Jose Mourinho fail.

Though there has as yet been no contact between the parties, McClaren was strongly recommended to Chelsea by Sven-Goran Eriksson, previously the leading contender for the post before he extended his contract with England.

Having delivered European football to Middlesbrough, and with the English League Cup a first piece of silverware in the club's history, McClaren can put a tick in a key box required by Chelsea's chief executive Peter Kenyon, that of having won a trophy as manager.

Kenyon and McClaren built a close relationship while together at Manchester United, and it is understood that Kenyon worked hard last summer to persuade the Middlesbrough coach to return to Old Trafford, though the deal fell through since under plc rules there could be no firm assurances McClaren would succeed Alex Ferguson.

Kenyon has been impressed with the strides McClaren's Middlesbrough have made this season, and his root-and-branch reform at the club, which also won a first FA Youth Cup, would act as a blueprint for the reorganisation required at Chelsea.

If he were to join Kenyon at Stamford Bridge, however, it would require the appointment of a general manager, a move that hitherto the Chelsea chief executive has resisted since it is a route the incumbent, Claudio Ranieri, has appealed for. McClaren, a tracksuit manager who prefers a hands-on role in coaching, would not want to deal with the minutiae of transfers.

McClaren has recently said: "What I want now is to experience different challenges. Who knows what the next one might be? It could be coaching abroad, it could be something else."

Ranieri again referred to himself yesterday as "a dead man walking".

The air of optimism that surrounded his tenure after the Champions League quarter-final defeat of Arsenal appears to have evaporated in the wake of his calamitous round of substitutions in the semi-final first-leg against Monaco on Tuesday which resulted in a 3-1 defeat.

Eriksson would have joined Chelsea after Euro 2004, but was shocked by the public backlash last month after the revelations of his meetings with Kenyon. The Swede has resolved that his next job must be abroad, with Real Madrid the likeliest destination.

Should the opportunity arise, McClaren has not ruled out joining Eriksson at the Bernabeu, but he is understood also to be a consideration for Liverpool, for whom Gerard Houllier is on shaky ground, and Newcastle, where Bobby Robson has just one year remaining on his contract.

Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry yesterday dismissed reports linking the club with a move for Mourinho.

"Contrary to press reports Liverpool have not made any approach or offer to Porto coach Jose Mourinho," Parry said. "The story is simply not true."

Fulham manager Chris Coleman has given his team a lift ahead of today's crucial Premiership match against Charlton by revealing he is "days" away from agreeing a new three-year deal.

Coleman, the Premiership's youngest manager, was given a one-year rolling contract at the end of last season but his success has forced the club into a rethink.