Andre Villas-Boas finally admits he was out of his depth as Chelsea manager back in 2011
Former Blues and Spurs boss discusses Jose Mourinho and his time in the Premier League
ANDRE Villas-Boas has finally admitted he was out of his depth as Chelsea manager.
Villas-Boas took over at Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2011 on the back of a successful debut season at Porto.
But he lasted just nine months at Chelsea with the club then battling for a top-four Premier League finish.
He had a series of bust-ups with players and accused Frank Lampard – who was just eight months younger than him – of failing to support him as manager.
Villas-Boas, speaking in Amsterdam at the Aspire Academy Global Summit, admitted: “The Chelsea experience was too much too soon. I wasn’t flexible as a manager at that time. I was communicative, but I wasn’t flexible in my approach.
“In professional football you have to live the day-to-day. The objective is the group performance, but every single individual requires a different response from a manager – you can’t be the same person to each player. At Chelsea the group was more important, I stuck to my methods too much.”
Villas-Boas, now 38, then endured a difficult period at Spurs before finally finding his feet again in Russia with Zenit St. Petersburg.
He also spoke about new Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho – shining light on why their relationship broke down. Villas-Boas was his assistant at Porto, moving with him to Chelsea and Inter before an argument in Italy forced him to branch out and manage on his own.
He said: “In my formative moments working with Jose was the best time of my life – I was able to learn many things and working with him takes you to another level.
“You fall in love with him and he becomes your idol. I wanted to be like him, know everything that he knew and absorb all the information he was giving.
“Then you fall on the wrong side of Jose and that’s when things change and you realise that you’ve been blinded by someone. He has this fascinating capability of getting the best out of you, which has good or bad consequences for people.
“My consequences were that as a result of the argument or disagreement we had, I started my coaching career.”
Villas-Boas also had a word of warning for current Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino for when results start to go wrong at White Hart Lane.
He said: “Daniel Levy is an expert in sacking managers. There’s no time for long term projects in the Premier League.”
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