The Ballad of Andre Villas-Boas

Tottenham Hotspur

Mistakes hopefully learnt, AVB yearned for a second chance. That chance came when Tottenham Hotspur appointed him “head coach” in 2012. Spurs like the man himself were a highly ambitious outfit and wished to break into the European football berths.

Together, manager and club enjoyed a great first season. Despite not finishing in the top four, they ended up 5th with a record points haul of 72 for a team who finished outside the top four as Arsenal edged them out by a single point. His relationship with the players seemed to be fantastic contrary to his time at Chelsea earning praise from his players .

Gareth Bale established himself as a superstar enthralling all with his performances throughout the season. Superb wins such as beating Manchester United at Old Trafford seemed to make AVB’s time at Chelsea a distant memory. The high line which failed ever so dramatically at Chelsea begin to yield benefits as the compressed play. All in all; he looked to be taking the club in the positive direction with the future looking ever so bright.

However as we all now know, that didn’t turn out that way. The biggest problem at the start of the 2013/2014 season (the first of many) was the future of Gareth Bale. A player of Bale’s quality was always going to find it hard to stay content with playing in the Europa league. A huge transfer saga ensued with Bale eventually being snapped by Real Madrid for a reported 85.3 million pounds.

Tottenham now had money on their hands, enough money to launch a huge threat to the “top four”. A raft of new signings such as the renowned Roberto Soldado from Valencia, and Erik Lamela from AS Roma followed as Villas-Boas looked ready to perfect his attacking style of football.

It seemed to have worked initially with Spurs consistently maintaining top four form within the first couple of months but it all went sour quickly. The most straightforward problem was that they couldn’t score goals. New signing Roberto Soldado seemed to be able to score only from the penalty spot. The inverted wingers meant Soldado barely received enough service as a lone striker.

AVB also rather controversially contributed the lack of goal scoring especially at home to the atmosphere at White Hart lane, which only served to worsen the situation. AVB’s compression of play up the pitch which had often pressured opposition into conceding was now overly predictable with the opponents easily adapting and accustoming themselves to this pattern, which meant all it took was a simple through ball to get in one on one with Hugo Lloris, who even though is arguably the best sweeper keeper in the world, can save only so many.

Michael Dawson is an exceptional defender, who unfortunately is not blessed with pace. Dawson proved to be just as disastrous in the high line as John Terry was, a lost soul in the centre as strikers ran through with ease .The game against Manchester City on the 26th of November. The high line was exploited from start to finish as City romped home 6-0 victors.

Walker and Vertonghen looked misplaced up the pitch as highly advanced fullbacks and often clashed with Lennon and Lamela’s play, while Kaboul and Dawson were left to fend city’s front four. It’s not too hard to find parallelism with Chelsea’s 5-3 defeat to Arsenal.

That sort of performance was surely one that an owner who invested 107 million into summer signings would want to be presented with. They looked to have sorted things out when they played Manchester United the very next week, adopting a more stable defensive approach which earned them a well earned 2-2 draw.

Unfortunately for Daniel Levy, he was treated to another devastating performance, losing 5-0 to Liverpool at Spurs’s own backyard on the 15th of December. AVB had reverted once again to his now infamously suicidal high line. That proved to be the end of line for AVB and his vision at Spurs as Daniel Levy had seen enough, as AVB was sent packing.

What does the future hold for AVB?

Andre Villas Boas’s time as a Premier League manager has most likely come to an end for the foreseeable future. His management style was also seen as a bit too continental for the physical Premier League, and one which was difficult to grasp for both Chelsea and Tottenham, who had a far less robust approach to the game.

He was always under high expectations at both the clubs, and as a manager who had never been in a sticky situation before found it extremely hard to react. The best option for him right now would be a break from the game, with time to reflect on his mistakes and reassess his thinking. A sabbatical year out could do him a world of good.

It is easily forgotten that he is still only 36 and has many years ahead of him, the resource he has is in his favour is time. Andre Villas-Boas’s career still has many unwritten chapters. His footballing journey is surely not over as he has much more to offer to the world of management.

He will continue to be criticised for his “Football Manager”-esque perception of football. For those attacking AVB for having not played professional football, I can only leave the words said by the great Arrigo Saachi, arguably one of the greatest tacticians the world had been blessed with – ““I never realised that in order to become a jockey you have to have been a horse first”.