One week ago, you would have struggled to find anyone in English football who knew of the name Andre Villas-Boas. Yet he has recently been confirmed as the new manager of one of the biggest clubs in the world.
Having resigned as manager of FC Porto yesterday, the 33-year old Portuguese has signed a 3-year contract to take over at Chelsea and has been deemed by Roman Abramovich, ahead of several big names, as the candidate most suitable to help Chelsea put their troubled season behind them and bring success back to Stamford Bridge.
The appointment of Villas-Boas is undoubtedly one of the more surprising decisions in recent seasons, but when you look in-depth at his credentials and his personality, it becomes a bit more clear as to why he has been chosen as Chelsea’s new boss.
Having failed to establish a career as a footballer, his potential as a future manager was spotted by the late Sir Bobby Robson whilst the Englishman was in charge at Porto. He later became assistant manager at Porto, before taking over as manager of another Portuguese side, Academica. Having taking over with the club bottom of the League and without a win all season, he guided them to an 11th placed finish, 10 points clear of the relegation zone. He then took over as manager of Porto in June 2010 and extraordinarily guided them to the Portuguese title, the Portuguese Cup and the Europa League title, all achieved without losing a single match. He is a very charismatic individual with excellent man-management skills and also speaks fluent English. He is undoubtedly one of the most exciting young managers in years and his achievements at such a young age have been phenomenal. Sound familiar? Well it should. He is essentially the new Jose Mourinho.
Mourinho himself never had a successful playing career, but he too was discovered by Sir Bobby Robson before making his name in the managerial world, guiding Porto to two European titles, before taking over at Chelsea and becoming the most successful manager in the club’s history. Villas-Boas has spent the majority of his coaching career under the guidance of Mourinho and would have learnt a lot from him down the years. It comes as no surprise that Chelsea would want a manager who is the younger version of one of their former favourites. But with all of the experienced managers out there like Guus Hiddink, who would also be deemed suitable for the job, are Chelsea taking a huge risk in appointing this young manager?
The Premier League is a completely different kettle of fish to the Portuguese League, and Villas-Boas has arguably taken on the hardest managerial job in the League. He is taking on a club who won nothing last season and limped their way to 2nd place. The board will expect at least one trophy next season and a very strong challenge of the Premier League title. He is also taking on a squad that is showing its vulnerability and its age. The likes of Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba (both of whom are the same age as Villas-Boas) and Nicolas Anelka are not the influential players that they once were and it will be up to him to rejuvenate the squad. He will be given a very generous budget by Mr Abramovich, but he will need to be certain that any new players that he brings in are of the highest calibre. Any more signings like Fernando Torres will simply not be tolerated.
Needless to say, the task ahead of him is going to be huge. With all of this in mind, surely the responsibility on the shoulders of this very young manager is too much to bear. In the footballing world, he still has a lot to learn and there will be plenty of concern that maybe this job has come too soon for him. On the other hand, this could potentially be a very shrewd investment by the club and if his managerial career thus far is anything to go by, he should have no problems whatsoever.
He may be the new Mourinho, but there is a hell of a lot of work to do before he fills the shoes of the ‘special one’.
Written by Sam Conway for FootballFancast.com. Read more of Sam’s articles at http://diamondformation.wordpress.com/. Also follow him on Twitter: @DiamondFormat.
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Of course he still has work to do. Mou has almost a decade of managerial experience ahead of him. I also don’t like how the media is trying to label him as Mourinho mk.2 or mini Mourinho. There are close links but he’s a different person with a different managerial philosophy.