The best gamble Roman Abramovich ever took on a coach was on Jose Mourinho. That Chelsea have not strutted with the same imperiousness before or since was undoubtedly in the Russian owner’s mind when he chose to break the bank to bring in Andre Villas-Boas, who he knows well from his spell on Mourinho’s staff. Yet it is not just the 33-year-old’s familiarity with the corridors and the parking lot layout at Stamford Bridge that will give him a good chance of adapting quickly to one of the most exacting club management posts in world football.
The similarity between the situation Villas-Boas inherited at the Estadio do Dragao last summer and the one he is getting ready to take on this year at Stamford Bridge is marked. After a cascade of honors, Porto had grown stale and stuck in a rut under Jesualdo Ferreira. Chelsea has become the same, even if to place the blame squarely at the feet of Carlo Ancelotti is overly harsh.
As Carletto showed at Milan, he is an expert at “squeezing a little more toothpaste out of the tube,” in the words of former Blues boss John Hollins, and the Italian’s magic masked a multitude of latent faults in his debut season. When the imperious pillars of 2009-10, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard, physically crumbled, so did Chelsea.
It will be interesting to see if the pair survive the cull which Villas-Boas is likely to implement. He may be less brash than Mourinho, but he can certainly be brutal, and he doesn’t lack the confidence which will be needed to establish a power base at the Bridge.
When he arrived from Academica de Coimbra last June, Villas-Boas wasted little time in deciding to get rid of the experienced Portugal internationals Bruno Alves and Raul Meireles, with the former going to Zenit St Petersburg and the latter to Liverpool. Meireles left just a few days before the close of the summer window, but Villas-Boas had made it clear that it was his choice to part ways, admitting he’d left the midfielder out of Porto’s opening games as a “technical choice."
The coach had already decided to change the tempo of his midfield, building it around Joao Moutinho, who was purchased from rivals Sporting Lisbon in a controversial move. It had an immediate effect. From the friendly presenting Porto to the fans against Sampdoria in late July, it was clear there was a difference.
“The 2010/11 Dragons attack with organization, resting solid on a renewed and strong midfield,” wrote Maisfutebol at the time. What was even more remarkable is that the snap, bite and energy in the side lasted way into the latter stages of the season. Villas-Boas’s Porto always played with an intensity that was quite uncommon for a Portuguese side.
With Porto’s stamina being so notable it is hardly surprising that Jose Mario Rocha, the fitness trainer who will come to Stamford Bridge to continue the work he began with Villas-Boas at Academica, is seen as a key signing by the new boss. Nobody is suggesting the new man can turn Chelsea into Barcelona overnight, but getting the squad mentally and physically on the same page will be crucial in Villas-Boas’s early attempts to set an agenda.
The purchases of Fernando Torres and David Luiz in January began the process of bringing down the Chelsea squad’s average age, so Villas-Boas has a head start. Yet the two winter arrivals were a seismic shock for many who thought Chelsea’s frivolous days were behind it. There are many players with question marks hanging over their heads.
Doubts have been growing whether Michael Essien will ever regain the physical level to return to his dervish-like best, and Villas-Boas’s quest for hearts and minds means he would not bat an eyelid should he think it necessary to dispense with John Terry, should he persuade Abramovich that this is the way forward. The coach will be keen to persist with 4-3-3 but his own interpretation of the system requires three front men who can switch positions at will, and wide players who can drop inside to score goals. One wonders if Yossi Benayoun and Florent Malouda are what he has in mind.
Everything Villas-Boas’s Porto side did was based around attacking. Even the side’s holding midfielder, Fernando, was encouraged to bring the ball forward over the halfway line and distribute. Under Jesualdo, the Brazilian’s role had been to merely sit in front of the defensive and let nobody past – by pretty much any means necessary. Now, he was liberated to express himself in an atmosphere of joyous abandon.
The conviviality fostered by Villas-Boas in the Porto dressing room was something to behold. When skipper Helton spoke of the boss as “our friend” before and after the Europa League final, it spoke not only of a bond between a coach who – in a rare shared characteristic with Mourinho – knows how to make every player feel part of something special, but of a stealthy maneuverer. Rather than battle against the perceived disadvantage of his relative youth (and it will be the same at Chelsea, where he is mere months older than Drogba and Lampard), he turned it to his own advantage.
He is no soft touch, as the likes of Walter and Maicon - who felt his wrath at Porto – will testify, but Villas-Boas’s reign in west London will be more of a benevolent dictatorship. Like Mourinho, Chelsea’s new coach has a strong belief in the power of the collective, but he has the daring streak to be loved in England for his football, where Mourinho was loved for his mouth.
Andy Brassell is the European correspondant for BBC 5Live's World Football Phone-In and a contributor to FOXSoccer.com. His work appears in titles including The Independent. Andy is also the author of 'All Or Nothing: A Season In The Life Of The Champions League' and can be found on Twitter at @andybrassell.
