He may always be remembered as the most hated man in our history, but Andre Villas Boas’s failure was multifold!
Jose Mourhino once famously said that ‘the Chelsea job came too soon for him’. If you look at the careers of both these gentlemen it will seem similar on first look. But there were differences. Jose had the harder road that prepared him. After leaving Barcelona and Van Gaal he decided to go it alone in Benfica.
His first sacking came when Benfica’s newly elected president and Jose had some disagreement. This was something that AVB never had, the experience of getting sacked. Like Mourhino at Uniao Liera, AVB did something similar at Academica to get the Porto job. They both won the Europa League in their first season (Jose took 3 months more to rebuild the team so it was actually his second season).
But that’s where the similarities fade. Jose stayed a year more to win the Champions League. Andre Villas Boas however did not. He came to Chelsea as a Europa League winner.
It’s also worth noting that Jose came to a team of rich boys who had won nothing. He was the champion, hence the leader. Andre was the Europa League winner in a team that does not play Thursday nights.
Further it did not help that the senior players were as old as him. Even a five year age gap makes a difference. So the ‘daddy factor’ as Essien puts it was hardly there. The ‘DVD man’ factor was at play here as Andre was a former employee at the back room staff.
That apart playing football always helps. Even if you suck at it like Jose did. Understanding the player`s psychology is important. But in young Andre’s world players were just machines rather than human beings.
Also in his previous teams he had players, in Chelsea he had personalities to work with. He then made his next mistake by not dipping into Roman’s pockets and chopping up the team. He chose to play a team that was not to his style even against the advice of the wise Michael Emenalo.
Juan Mata was his only meaningful straight into the first team buy! He inherited a team that was too strong psychologically, and too wrong for his tactics. He then tried to force his tactics. In hindsight he may still rue this decision, as his lack of adaptability cost him his job ultimately.
Every strategy and tactic in the world will be an epic failure, if you’re personnel are not suited to it. His persistence despite this made him look naive in front of his own players who have seen the best coaches in the business. By hiring Roberto Di Matteo he did Chelsea a huge favour but it back fired on him. A tactician like Steve Holland or a defensive coach could have saved his neck.
Robbie may be a great man, but a good number 2, he’s not. Andre was intimidated wasn’t he, from day one.
He started off as ‘The Mini Mourhino’, a man who was his mentor, best coach in the world, and most importantly a man whom he did not talk to. At some point it had to become psychological fear factor of being less than Mou. He once says ‘if someone picks up a fight on me I’d expect some of my backroom coaching staff to rescue me’ in an interview.
Further more his voice is not his own. Anyone with medical expertise should know that he’s roughing up his voice tensing his vocal cords. Why? And all the long complicated words in the interview using a paragraph when a line can do only highlights a growing insecurity. When the chips look down and player power cropped up he chose to stamp his authority by banning Anelka and Alex for requesting transfers.
Creating fear is a good idea in management, but it’s only short term. And he over did it with banning them from the Christmas bash. So you can see it all falling now can’t you? He then created a divide in the dressing room. All the Portuguese speakers one end, and the English and the French speakers on the other.
The Spanish looked confused and the rest were dazed. In a showdown with his players following a defeat it was the local boys who were outspoken in their criticism namely Cole and Sturridge and I think it was Daniel who went too far that day, a factor I suspect Di Matteo made a note off. (Robbie today just needs Cole and Lamps to retire and survive till then and the team is his. And I’m sure he does not want more of it in Danny. Terry is not going to get you sacked because he has too much going on in his life anyway. Nor will Cech or Brana. Drogs another influential person is gone. Malouda banned. So you see what Robbie is doing here don`t you?).
In the end player power or not, you need your big game players on your side. And without them on a cold night in the Stadio San Paolo on a chilly night in a cauldron of fire Andre Villas Boas’ fate was sealed.
This article is neither a criticism of AVB or of player power but a retrospective understanding of football. Management is more than just tactics, formations and criticizing your own players in each match day thread. A lot of you would have made the exact same mistake as Andre did if you’re match day comments are anything to go by.
Players are people. You lead people right along with the right understanding of the game you win. It’s a fine balance, an art only a Mourinho, a Ferguson, a Shankly perfected, and are still working on excepting the latter who is no longer with us. Andre is still left with the scars, and his chip chopping of the Spurs squad is a sign of that. He’ll get it right eventually. So will we! We will get there. We already are on our way to changing our systems. We will get there someday. European Champions is just the beginning
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