Introducing André Villas-Boas
June 29th, 2011 by adminHe may look and sound a little like the Special One but André Villas-Boas is no Jose Mourinho. Yes, he led Porto to the Primeira Liga title and then success in the Europa League but this competition is no Champions League. There, they had to play the likes of Besiktas, Rapid Vienna, CSKA Sofia and Seville – good teams but nowhere near the calibre of the teams Chelsea will have to face next season, teams such as Lyon, Bayern Munich, Milan and reigning champions Barcelona.
Villas-Boas is still a relative novice to management, with the Chelsea chapter marking only his third year in such a position. Mourinho was similar in this regard when he came to Chelsea but he was 10 years older and the said 10 years gave him a lot of extra experience. How will Villas-Boas handle dealing with players who are only a few months younger than him and how will the players respond to his personality and methods?
Mourinho loved locking horns with his closest rivals in Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger. How will young Villas-Boas fare on that front? Add Mancini, Dalglish and Redknapp into the equation and Villas-Boas probably knows better than most that there’ll be no honeymoon, rather he will be expected to deliver from the outset. He is managing one of the highest-profile clubs in the world – one of the few clubs which not only compete in the Champions League, but have a realistic chance of winning it and for the fans and chairman Abramovich, failure is not an option.
