Former Burnley chief executive Paul Fletcher claims the Clarets turned down Andre Villas-Boas' application to manage at Turf Moor back in 2010.
Fletcher says the Burnley board were scared off the Portuguese - in charge of Academica in his homeland at the time - because they were baffled by his football jargon.
Villas-Boas, now at Tottenham after an ill-fated stint with Chelsea, first looked to make his mark on the Premier League when he applied to succeed Owen Coyle at Burnley following his departure to Bolton in January 2010.
Fletcher says the Clarets opted against the then 32-year-old after his application left the club's chiefs perplexed, turning instead to Brian Laws, who took the club down.
In his new book Magical: A Life In Football, ex-Burnley chief Fletcher said: "(Former Scotland manager) Tommy Docherty used to say he never said anything to his players that his milkman wouldn't understand.
"I don't think any milkman would fathom the meaning of a lot of Andre's presentation.
"The language and jargon of football gets worse by the day. Villas-Boas uses a lot of it. Would Burnley players have ever understood what he wanted if he'd told them to 'solidificate' or some of his other terms?
"He sent a very detailed and lengthy application for the job. His CV and power-point presentation was amazing. If you'd showed it to some of our old managers, they'd have said, 'Blazes, what the hell does it all mean?'
"Even by today's standards, there was some complicated stuff in it, with some things that I didn't understand.
"With hindsight, we might have appointed him, but at the time it would have been too big a risk."
