In front of the assembled media at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, after May 2011’s Europa League final, André Villas-Boas acknowledged a debt of gratitude in his finest moment. The victorious Porto coach offered a dedication “…to someone who has already left us, but was decisive in my career: Sir Bobby Robson. I never had the opportunity to say farewell to him. I'd like to dedicate this to him and his wife, Elsie, and thank him for everything he's done for me.”
The perfect circle of suffering the first major setback of his coaching career in the country that launched him will not be lost on the 34-year-old. Sir Bobby famously pulled a few strings to allow his teenage protégé to enroll on a UEFA ‘C’ coaching course in the mid-1990s, while technically below the lower age limit. Villas-Boas later observed the work of George Burley at Sir Bobby’s old club Ipswich Town and was drawn towards English soccer. That inexorable pull has proved to be his downfall.
It wasn’t meant to be like this. Villas-Boas has always had a strong sense of self and of plotting a steady path, as he proved when taking his first club head coach’s role at Liga wooden-spooner Académica de Coimbra in October 2009 – much against then-boss José Mourinho’s advice, and by his own admission taking a substantial cut from a “crazy salary” at Internazionale. Taking on the significant challenge of reviving a stagnant Porto in summer 2010 was a rapid progression, but it felt right.
His subsequent move to Chelsea may have seen pre-destined given his links to Mourinho and his own history at the club, but in June 2011 it seemed just a year earlier than all three parties – Porto, Chelsea and AVB himself – would ideally have wanted.
Well, it was earlier than Porto wanted, until the Portuguese champion realized it could bank a world record compensation fee for a coach. By playing hardball on Villas-Boas’ €15m release clause, Porto could simultaneously appear strong and play the victim, with any decision on the coach’s future legally taken out of the club’s hands once the clause was met.
In his unveiling at Stamford Bridge, Villas-Boas was challenged on his decision to turn his back on his hometown club, having previously stated on a number of occasions his intention to lead it back into the Champions League and build on his season of plenty. Admitting that nothing would assuage Porto’s “sense of betrayal”, he hinted that the burning ambition in his heart had won over the long-term plan in his head. “When you're extra confident, maybe you make mistakes that you shouldn't," he suggested. "In the end, I just felt I could challenge myself a little bit more.”
In spring 2011, the atmosphere in his Porto squad had been extraordinary. The players exuded invincibility on the field, and the locker room was effervescent off it. Perhaps that feeling of being untouchable had led Villas-Boas to forget that Porto was just surfing a wave. The team wasn’t yet the finished article. How could it be, before testing itself in the rarified air of the Champions League?
What made Villas-Boas’ Porto so exhilarating was that it flew by the seat of its pants. The thrill was in watching a reckless team succeed on what felt like pure adrenaline. Porto defended with a cavalier gait that would become infamous in Villas-Boas’ spell at Stamford Bridge, but had the attacking power to make it not matte, and the swagger to cow often-modest opponents.
A transitional Chelsea lacked that ability to spark. Perhaps if Villas-Boas had been able to call on some of the heralded young players cast off by his predecessors, such as Fenerbahçe’s Miroslav Stoch or Roma’s new Italy international Fabio Borini, he would have found the energy in his staff required to instill his still-nascent style into the Premier League.
While Villas-Boas had significantly changed Porto, he had done it by evolution, not revolution. He quickly moved on the squad’s two most senior outfield players in Bruno Alves and Raul Meireles, but adjusted the team’s dynamic rather than changing the shape from the habitual 4-3-3.
It all went so swimmingly that he was starved of one of the most important growth experiences of all – adversity. Villas-Boas’ real problem at Chelsea was not directly a question of age, but that he had never had to dig himself out of a real hole. We’ve seen it before. Markus Babbel had a stellar first season at Stuttgart, propelling the shell of a team inherited from Armin Veh from mid-table into the Champions League in 2009. When things got rough, he lacked the knowhow to react. Babbel was out of a job before Christmas 2009.
Amidst the accolades in Portugal, there had been a clue that Villas-Boas had not yet learned to lose. After a stellar start to 2010-11, Porto entered October with a 100% record. In game seven in the Liga, it dropped its first points in a draw at Guimarães. Villas-Boas was sent to the stands in the closing stages for rowing with referee Carlos Xistra.
He continued his broadside at the official after the game, complaining that Porto should have been awarded a penalty. “If the (television) images show that it wasn’t a penalty, I’ll apologize,” he pledged. Television vindicated Xistra, so Villas-Boas retracted his barb – and then went on to drag up another half-dozen errors that he claimed the referee had committed. It was petty, ungracious and unconstructive. It also contextualizes some of his increasingly spiky behavior to perceived criticism as his time at Chelsea went on.
So what next for AVB? The irony is that his next assignment could well be at Internazionale, another club where he previously worked under Mourinho to great effect - and another club where a huge rebuilding job is desperately needed, and has been since his fellow Portuguese upped sticks for Real Madrid. At least Dejan Stankovic and Cristian Chivu should be easier to shift than Frank Lampard and John Terry.
