Chelsea Managerial Target Andres Villas Boas: The Story of a Very Unique Manager
June 20, 2011
Football management is the domain of footballers past—that's just how it is.
In the Estádio do Dragão in Portugal’s Northern corner, however, one man is creating waves. He is a man who has bucked the conventions of the managerial way to forge another path, a path untrodden.
Today, the Hollywood tale of a man who came from obscurity, to reach the highest echelons of his profession appears as if it will receive the gold seal. Andres Villas Boas, the 33-year-old Portuguese National who never played professional football and spent much of his life in Jose Mourinho’s coaching setup, looks set for the Chelsea job.
Conflicting reports are currently circulating in the media, centring on Roman Abramovic’s reticence, or otherwise, to buy out Villas Boas' Porto contract at a cost of around €13 million. It would be a bold move by the Russian Oligarch to place the rudder of his drifting Chelsea empire in the hands of a man with under two years of managerial experience. But then again, the Russian is not known for his temperance.
The Villas Boas story started some 17 years ago, when a 16-year-old avid Porto fan lived in the same apartment block as then Porto manager Bobby Robson. Boas approached Robson on a number of occasions, and the late Sir Bobby was so enamoured with the tactical acumen the young man showed that he offered him a job in Porto’s "Observation department."
A year later, at the tender age of 17, Villas Boas achieved his UEFA C coaching licence on a course in Scotland.
The young Boas continued to ply his indomitable trade in the Portuguese club’s coaching setup, particularly impressing Robson with his fluency in the manager's native English tongue.
Four years later, Villas Boas took the step up into management, albeit at the rather incongruous post of head coach of the British Virgin Islands national side. He only lasted a year with the BVI, however, before returning to his old stomping ground of Porto to take up a position as assistant to a then relatively unknown Mourinho.
So began an 8-year fraternity between the two men, as Villas Boas quietly blended into the background while the now "Special One" moved from Porto to Chelsea and finally on to Inter Milan.
At the start of the 2009/10 season, Villas Boas took the decision to extradite himself from the Mourinho coaching setup and left to plough his own managerial furrow.
It was not long—two months in fact—until he got his first break. After the resignation of Academica coach Rogério Gonçalves, the team at the bottom of the Portuguese Premeira Liga turned to the fresh-faced 31-year-old Villas Boas.
When Villas Boas took over, Academica was stone last in the table and without a win to their name all season. However, the young manager instilled in the side his now distinctive style of play and produced a minor escape act—leading the minnows to 11th place, ten points clear of relegation.
Villa Boas’ impressive debut season and attractive playing style led to intense media speculation linking him with the vacant managerial position at Sporting Club de Portugal following the departure of manager Carlos Carvalhal in the summer of 2010. The speculation eventually came to nothing, but when Jesualdo Ferreira left Portugal’s other superpower a few weeks later, the Portistas wasted little time in handing the reigns to Villas Boas.
Porto was where the world really started to take notice of the man who was no longer a subsidiary of the Mourinho ego. It only took two months for the first trophy of the Villas Boas era: a 2-0 Portuguese Super Cup victory over archrival Benfica.
From then on, Villas Boas’ debut season is defined by a series of records:
- Youngest manager to lift the UEFA Europa League (after a 1-0 victory over Braga at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin.)
- Club record for the most consecutive matches unbeaten in all competition, with 36 matches. Ironically this beat the previous mark of 33 held by the protégés once-mentor Mr. Special Mourinho.
- The most points in a 30-game Portuguese season (84).
- The most wins in Europe in one season by a Portuguese club (14).
- The highest number of consecutive wins in the Portuguese league (16).
- The biggest margin over the second-place team in the league (21).
- The only team to win the Portuguese league without being beaten, besides the great Benfica of 1972-73.
By the end of the season, unsurprisingly, parallels were being drawn between Villas Boas and Mourinho. Aside from the obvious working link, they both exude a handsome Portugese charm and come from similar backgrounds. However, where Mourinho is often overtly brash and ego-centric. Villas Boas is more methodical. But he does possess a similar fiery character to his mentor.
The style of play of the two is also quite different. Mourinho’s tactical predisposition is commonly to adopt a fairly rigid defensive setup, while Villas Boas’ teams are know for his attractive, attacking, passing style of football.
Villas Boas, at 33, will be the same age as Chelsea stars Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard, looks set for the biggest break of his infantile career. The man who two years ago was firmly entrenched in the shade of Mourinho’s ego, could well, two years later, step blinking into the Stamford Bridge light.