Andre Villas-Boas is a good manager and can be a success at Tottenham but it will take time.
Harry Redknapp achieved magnificent heights in his four years at White Hart Lane. However the problem with that is with increasing success comes increasing expectation. After two top four finishes in three seasons along with a Champions League quarter final, Tottenham are now aiming a lot higher than when Redknapp took over in 2008.
Now Villas-Boas comes in with a big job on his hands. He’ll probably have to deal with Luka Modric, the club’s best player, being sold to Real Madrid. That’s unlikely to help the club in their quest to overhaul the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, Newcastle and Liverpool and achieve their aim of maintaining their top four status. Keeping Gareth Bale and Emannuel Adebayor is positive news however. Also, a couple of players have already been signed in Swansea’s former loanee Guildi Sigurdsson and Ajax captain and Belgium international Jan Vertonghen. Further additions would have been easier had Chelsea not snatched their Champions League place away but they still must try to add more quality to their squad.
Champions League qualification again will be extremely difficult to reach. Man-City and Man-Utd were comfortably the best two sides in the league last season and it will take something special for Tottenham to finish above those two. Then there’s Arsenal who Tottenham can never seem to finish above, despite coming close on a few occasions. You also have to expect Chelsea to have a better domestic campaign than last season as they can’t rely on winning the Champions League every season to qualify for the next season’s competition.
At Chelsea, Villas-Boas was facing a similar struggle to keep Chelsea in the top four and as a result, whether right or wrong, his reign was short lived. The main reason was because he was trying to build a team for the future and he made a lot of changes. Some older players were dropped and hence took a dislike to this approach. Chelsea always want instant success and current results were deemed not good enough. I don’t see AVB having these problems at Tottenham.
Everyone knows how powerful money is in the football world today. The difference between Chelsea and Tottenham is Chelsea can dig themselves out of a hole by spending ridiculous amounts of money on world-class players. Tottenham can’t compete with Chelsea on a financial scale and there is no guarantee that they will maintain success. So they have to hunt for good players available for good prices to try and stay in contention with the big clubs.
This club mentality suits Villas-Boas far better. This should give him freedom to build a team up, because Tottenham are still very much a work in progress. They are aspiring higher than where they are but they can’t achieve it over night. Also, we know Villas-Boas likes to play attractive football which Spurs played under Redknapp.
My fear is that if Tottenham finish 5th or 6th next season, fans will grow inpatient and call for his head. In reality, this is likely when you consider the strengths of the other top teams. If Villas-Boas is given a fair length of time to work in the job, I believe it could be a success story. Tottenham are not far away from potentially having the best side they’ve ever had in the Premier League. Losing Modric would be a huge blow but they have a good squad and if they can the majority of it together for a long period of time, whilst adding quality where needed, there is no reason why they can’t have a very bright future.
The key is consistency. Most successful managers needed time to bring success to their clubs, even Sir Alex Ferguson. Tottenham have often been a club that changes manager every five minutes but they should have a long-term plan in place for Villas-Boas and stick to it. That will give them their best chance of achieving their aspirations.
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