The board vote goes to Mourinho

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo says the support for former Chelsea manager José Mourinho (45) in the Barcelona board is growing. There would now be a clear majority of board members who are in favour of Mourinho taking charge of the team as of next season. The general feeling is that the Rijkaard era has finished. Barcelona president Joan Laporta, who will have the last word, is still standing by his manager but starts to realize it will be very hard to terminate his mandate as president together with the Dutchman.

Mourinho seems willing to wait for Barcelona to take a decision. Earlier this week, Mourinho even sent out his adviser Eladio Parames to deny in the British newspaper The Independent the rumour that he aleady had spoken with Inter president Massimo Moratti. Because it seems Inter Milan is pushing very hard for the Portuguese, Barcelona would now have contacted Mourinho's agent Jorge Mendes asking him to give some more time to Barcelona.

(read more on the manager debate here)