Chelsea have confirmed Luiz Felipe Scolari as their new manager, ending several weeks of speculation over the appointment following the departure of Avram Grant. “Big Phil” will officially arrive at the club on July 1 after ending his term as Portugal’s coach at Euro 2008.

Many consider the appointment to be a gamble on Chelsea’s part, although there’s now doubting Scholari’s pedigree – nine domestic trophies in Brazil along with a World Cup with their national side certainly stand out on his CV. He also took Portugal to the Euro 2004 final, beating England on the way.

In terms of Chelsea squad and style of play, it seems likely that Carvalho could be convinced to remain at the club and be integral to their defence once again next season. That defence seems set to be the foundation on which Chelsea’s results are built. Scholari, a former defender himself, developed a reputation in Brazil of putting results before performance, often opting to disrupt the rhythm of an opponent’s style of play, restricting them as a priority in order to achieve a victory. While he’s not considered to be quite the 1-0 merchant that Mourinho was, it seems likely that the clean sheets and “professional performances” will remain on the menu.

Whether Scholari’s arrival will be enough to convince the likes of Lampard and Drogba to stick around is another matter – he might have more luck convincing Ronaldo to pack his bags for Madrid. As for possible targets, it seems inevitable that we’ll seem plenty of speculation surrounding the likes of Deco and Quaresma in the coming weeks.