Robert Exley
How many of you harbour dreams of one day becoming manager of a title winning side with European honours to boot? Judging by some of the articles here and postings on the forum I’d assume the vast majority of you would! Though of course, not ever having played football professionally at any level is surely going to hamper that dream, right? Well not if you are FC Porto’s Portuguese title and Europa Cup Winning manager Andre Villas-Boas. At 33 years of age he is a good four years Ryan Giggs’ junior, though he has actually never been a player of any sort at any level of football whatsoever. At the age of 16 he had shared an apartment block with the late great former boss of FC Porto, Bobby Robson and had been displeased at Robbo’s side-lining of his hero – current Sporting Braga manager and beaten Europa League finalist manager Domingos Paciencia. So Andre decided to post an elaborate letter to Bobby Robson to inform him why such tactics were a mistake. Robbo was impressed with what young Andre had to say for himself and called on him to back his argument in favour of Domingos by collecting statistics from Porto’s next few games. The result was a report so comprehensive that Robson invited young Andre to work as a trainee with the club’s youth-team coaching staff and encouraged him to take a coaching course.
Although many remember the great Bobby Robson fondly, it’s fair to say that communicating effectively on a one to one basis was never his strong point – on England duty he often referred to Tony Adams as ‘Paul Adams’ confusing him with a former Ipswich Town youth player of a few years earlier and in conversation with his captain Bryan Robson had once called him Bobby, to which Captain Marvel replied “er..no boss I’m Bryan, your Bobby”. Luckily no such problem occurred with Villas-Boas; in fact his level of Anglophonic communication was honed by his Geordie paternal grandmother, Margaret Kendall, and had impressed Sir Bobby immensely. Robson’s generosity toward Villas Boas knew no bounds, helping the young lad to enrol on a coaching course at Lilleshall despite not being permitted to do so for Villas-Boas being under the age of 18, though a word from Robson in Charles Hughes’ shell-like allowed young Andre on the course.
In his spare time from studying his coaching exams he had managed to score himself what must be a footballing equivalent of an internship, by becoming the British Virgin Islands' technical director of football in 2000. He was, at the age of 23, effectively an international football manager of a territory whose population of 27,000 would barely half fill Ashburton Grove, overseeing their qualifying campaign for the 2002 World Cup in the CONCACAF region. Villas-Boas said of the experience that “I was a kid, but they didn't know that. I only told them my age the day I left the post”. With such experience under his belt he returned to FC Porto as the under 19s coach in 2001, when just over 12 months later, Robson’s former assistant Jose Mourinho returned to boss FC Porto and promoted Robson’s former protégé to a scouting position, or as the Special One had grandiosely termed it, leading his ‘Opponent Observation Department’ .
In the words of Villas Boas, the purpose of the OOD had been to “enable Jose to know exactly when a player from the opposition team is likely to be at his best or his weakest. I will travel to training grounds, often incognito, and then look at our opponents' mental and physical state before drawing my conclusions and presenting a full dossier to Jose. It takes me four days to put an entire file together, so it is very comprehensive. The reports are given to all the players as well as the manager. The idea is that when the players go out on the pitch, they are totally prepared, so there can be very few surprises during the game”. After back to back UEFA Cup and Champions League wins in 2003-2004, Villas-Boas and his ‘OOD’ followed Mourinho to Chelsea and then later on to Inter before parting company in 2009 to start his own managerial career and, for such a studious watcher of the game, it was no doubt apt that Andre would start his career at a club named ‘Academia’. Anchored to the bottom of the Portuguese Prima Liga without a win on his arrival in October 2009, Andre had steered them a good 10 points clear of relegation to 11th place and to the semi-finals of the Portuguese League Cup.
His good work at Academia had caught the eye of his former employers at FC Porto, where he was handed the vacant throne in June 2010. His impact was immediate, starting with 16 consecutive wins and extending an unbeaten run to 36 straight matches. In his debut season FC Porto had won the title with a record 86 points and 21 point margin over their nearest rivals. Also added to his first season trophy haul had been the Portuguese Cup, Portuguese Super Cup and Europa League. Not surprisingly, Villas Boas has in recent weeks been cited as a possible candidate to take over from Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea, however FC Porto have announced to any would-be poachers that Andre comes with a £13.1 million release clause.
The Case in Favour of Andre Villas-Boas
Though it would be considered unorthodox to appoint a manager with barely any playing experience in professional football, it is something that Arsenal have done twice before to enormous success. George Allison had a brief spell playing amateur football for his local side in Stockton-on-Tees, however his main profession prior to taking the Arsenal job on Herbert Chapman’s passing had been as a sports journalist. Bertie Mee also may have played 13 times for Mansfield Town, however by the time of his appointment as Arsenal manager he had spent the previous six years as Arsenal’s physiotherapist – which would have been akin to appointing Gary Lewin after George Graham or Bruce Rioch’s sacking in the mid-1990s! His record so far is also nothing short of incredible and for someone so young he has direct experience of working with two of the greatest in Robson and Mourinho. Also, unlike Mourinho he has gained plaudits from all-comers for winning with style and fluent free flowing football.
Like any great manager Villas-Boas’s rise to the top has come from excellent attention to detail. He has also been required to prove himself to players despite having no experience of playing at the top level which, in this ego-driven era of professional football, is no mean feat. People may also write off the Portuguese League, however let’s not forget, it has produced Mourinho and it is also where Sven-Goran Eriksson honed his talents prior to Serie A.
The major selling point with Villas-Boas is that, so far in football he has achieved great things and he is only 33 years of age. Looking at Wenger and Ferguson’s longevity in the game, he could well have another 30 years ahead of him in football and surely enough time to achieve real greatness in one of Europe’s major leagues. Also, his English grandparentage not only makes his language skills ideally suited to the Premiership, through the ‘patriality’ rule of British nationality laws he could even be a British citizen should he wish to apply – which would give Arsenal their first ‘English’ manager for 25 years should he be appointed!
The case Against Andre Villas-Boas
Whatever the merits of the Portuguese Prima Liga, the fact that only five teams have ever won it in its entire history speaks volumes. Even the Scottish league has produced more title winning sides than Portugal. Also, while Portuguese players’ egos have not been too big to take orders from a 33 year old with no experience of professional football, the EPL is in a different stratosphere altogether. At least Jose Mourinho had a Champions League under his belt on arrival at Stamford Bridge in 2004 and direct playing experience as a professional footballer, albeit to very modest effect. Also, lest not forget that Villas Boas has had only one full season as a Portuguese League manager. After all, Carlo Ancelotti knows only too well that there is a thin line between being a double winning hero and receiving your P45, even in the English Premier League. Also, despite being only 33 years of age Villas-Boas doesn’t see his long term future in Football management, stating that “My main objective in my career is to build something that I am proud of. I don’t want to be in a coaching position for a long time because it’s a position that drains you emotionally. It takes a lot from you, from your family and I don’t want to live like that. I want to have a short, 10-12 year career. Fifteen years, maybe, maximum. And then leave. But during that time I want to leave some kind of mark.
Final Assessment: At the age of 33 and one successful season in the Portuguese League Andre might show promise, but promise is a comfort to a fool - more so in management than in playing. Sacking one manager for investing too much faith in untested youth and then appointing an untested young manager doesn’t make any sense – even if he has won the Europa League. However that is not to say Villas-Boas might one day reach the required standard, but the acid test for Villas Boas will be how he performs in Champions League and whether he can build on last season’s success, so the time for Villas-Boas to run an Arsenal side that has pretensions to challenge for Premiership and Champions League success is not this current time. 5 out of 10
The end of season Gooner Survey closes for entries at the end of tomorrow (Friday). You need to fill in the whole thing in one go, so maybe do not start submitting your entry unless you have half an hour to complete it. Just click here when you are ready to begin. One entrant will be selected at random to receive next season’s home replica shirt for their trouble.
