Porto coach Jose Mourinho is the only candidate to take over at Chelsea, the club’s billionaire Russian owner Roman Abramovich has confirmed.

Chelsea sacked their manager Claudio Ranieri on Monday and Mourinho is understood to be holding talks today with the Stamford Bridge club.

“He is the only one left,” Abramovich, told reporters at the Kremlin.

“I hope the talks have entered their final stage,” he was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency Interfax.

Mourinho arrived in London on Tuesday with Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon.

Asked if he was going to be the new Chelsea manager, Mourinho replied: “No comment. You’ll have to wait a little bit.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said there would probably be a news conference within the next 24 hours.