Andre Villas Boas is a very competent manager. His record at Porto is unblemished and his phenomenal success convinced Chelsea to pay over £13million in compensation to release the highly-rated young manager. AVB joined a ‘project’ which was to get rid of the old-guard in John Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole. It was a battle he was never going to win and especially when Roman Abramovich cuts the ‘project’ not even a year into the 3-year deal Villas-Boas signed.
People say, somewhat disrespectfully, Villas-Boas was ‘lucky’ to have joined Tottenham when it was consider AVB had to go off and rebuild his tarnished reputation, certainly in the Premier League, where it remained questionable if he could be a successful manager in the Premier League. The Harry Redknapp fan club, which is most of the media, were in outrage when their man was sacked from Tottenham. The main reason was not securing Champions League football, although flirting with the England job and openly admitting he would leave his job at Spurs if he was offered the England job, hardly helped. Redknapp should have known it was disrespectful to his employers and Daniel Levy could hardly rely on a manager who’s intent on showing the F.A his interest in the England job.
If the media had doubts over AVB’s credentials as a manager then replacing the much loved Redknapp from Tottenham would be immensely difficult, as the media’s much loved manager was jobless and replaced by what many of the media consider a ‘failure’. Villas-Boas has done a very competent job at Tottenham. The defeat to Wigan was one of his lows, as Spurs created next to nothing in chances and were even booed by his own fans. Spurs have been dangerously reliant on Dembele in the first half of this season and without him they look impotent.
However the best result of Villas-Boas reign thus far is the 3-2 away victory over Manchester United. 23-years it has taken for Tottenham to win at Old-Trafford but AVB was able to put to bed that miserable streak. Admittedly, Spurs rode their luck but their pace and quick transitions made it unbearable for the United defence. The media have the audacity to say the win over United was not that impressive. Steve Kean, the former Blackburn manager, achieved a win over United last season and Villas-Boas has acquired the same luck. Any praise Villas-Boas gets for masterminding a first victory at Old Trafford for over 23-years is quickly dismissed.
Villas-Boas has also got the best out of
Jermain Defoe. Redknapp always left Defoe on the bench and never gave him a sufficient run out. Implementing a 4-2-3-1 formation, Villas-Boas made Defoe the spearhead of his attack and has been rewarded with 13 goals already this season. Spurs are 4th in the league. Keep that up and Spurs fans will be happy with their manager. The media’s vendetta against AVB will only get bigger whilst Redknapp is relegated to the Championship with the woeful Q.P.R team he’s inherited.
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AVB’s record for Porto is unblemished because he left after one season! If Mourinho left Real Madrid after last season, his record would be unblemished too. AVB is not a proven competent manager because his still only has ONE full season of football under his belt! Académica was a part season, Chelsea sacked him before end of season, and he is part way through his first Spurs season whilst not particularly proving competence because you still cannot prove whether he is earning the results or the squad is. Redknapp always left Defoe on the bench? Wrong!!!! Redknapp got the best out of Defoe and started him 31 times in the 2009-10 season. It was Jol and Ramos who always left Defoe on the bench. Yes Harry ended up leaving Defoe on the bench, but when finishing 4th twice and 5th twice and being the most successful Spurs manager for a while, you can’t argue with that decision. Time will tell to see if AVB can get his tactics to work in EPL. His tactics failed at Chelsea, and so far at Spurs he is struggling to match the level of performance that Spurs fans have been used to in the last few years. We wait and see.
AVB inherited a squad that did not have VDV , Ratface, kaboul and Parker both injured. Then Benny is out a week after Rose is put out on loan. To put it in real terms AVB has done a fantastic job to keep us in the hunt when we couldhave drifted to mid table mediocrity.
Just rememberhave poor Redknapp was from January last season- to sayhe had no plan ‘b’ is an understatement. I was not sure when our new Gaffer was appt but now feel so positive for our future.
Are you kidding? Defoe threatened to quit Spurs last year because his lack of games! His tactics would have flourished at Chelsea had he been able to get the owner to give him more time. The players were also against him because he was replacing the old guard with young, fresh faces. You can’t rebuild in half a season. You can’t rebuild in one season. It takes multiple seasons to rebuild. He was never given the chance. He has proven he can win. He needs to be given the chance. I think he’s doing a masterful job so far, and I think he will only get better. So what if it’s the team getting results and not him. They’re HIS tactics and HE picks the team, so if the team succeeds, he does too.