Five men who have worked with the new Chelsea coach during his meteoric rise describe what makes the Portuguese tick
Augusto Inácio
Assistant manager at Porto when a 16-year-old André Villas-Boas met Bobby Robson, who gave him an ‘observational’ role at the club
Was I surprised that Andre Villas-Boas has become head coach of Chelsea? To be honest, no, I’m not surprised because after his success at Porto, winning the league and Europa League last season, doors opened for him.
Villas-Boas was a good student and he always liked football and spoke with Bobby Robson about the game. He and Bobby were neighbours when they met. At first Bobby never said to me that Villas-Boas would, or could be, a top coach, that he would end up one of the very best. He just said: “I know this young boy who understands football very well. He speaks very well about football.” This was unusual because André was, indeed, very young.
Bobby liked Villas-Boas for a simple reason: when Bobby spoke with him, Villas-Boas posed questions that other people just did not ask Bobby.
He is a good coach because he can relate well to the group of players, and with his still being of a young age this can be an advantage, as footballers can relate to him. People mention that Villas-Boas was never a professional footballer but I don’t think this matters too much because, although he never played, he has a comprehensive understanding of football: it is not always necessary to be a player as you can also learn another way.
How is Andre Villas-Boas as a person? I can say that as a personality or character he comes alive whenever he is involved with football, or a game is being played. He changes then, becomes different. You see how passionate he is.
Jim Fleeting
SFA’s director of development, who has known Villas-Boas since 1994 when he began his Uefa coaching badges at Largs in west Scotland
He was a very confident, studious and successful candidate. He started with us at the Scottish Football Association when he was 17, taking in the full Uefa structure from C, B, A and finally the Pro Licence in 2006. I coached the courses he undertook for his B badge, and André took classes with, among others, Owen Coyle, Ally McCoist and Malky McKay.
André is very determined, open to learning and, in the latter stages when he undertook his Pro Licence, was a very mature and quality coach. He was a young boy who started with little experience of coaching or managing. There were two- or three-year gaps between the courses and every time he came back you could see the development, as he had gone away and studied the game.
André has an application that says: “I’m going to reach this target I’ve got in my life, no matter what, I’m going to get there. I’m going to go and listen to the best people, work with the best coaches, watch the best footballers, go with the best sports science, work with the best psychologists, read as many books as I can and watch as many games as I can.” His success is an amalgamation of so many things. It is a product of who he is first of all, how he was brought up. André is very, very ambitious and will not rest until he has reached whatever his level may be, and Andre doesn’t know what that is. He’s got a fantastic challenge at Chelsea and I’m sure he’ll meet that head on.
Kenrick Grant
Former president of British and Virgin Islands FA, who gave Villas-Boas, then 21, his first coaching job in 2000
I gave him the job because he had the qualifications, was young and enthusiastic, and it was easy to bargain with him in terms of salary. His initial contract was for $25,000 a year, which included accommodation. I was actually looking for a youth coach initially, somebody young who was familiar with running youth programmes and we put an advert on the internet and he applied.
Once he arrived his interest was really in the senior team, and I recognised his knowledge and his abilities. He used to help out the senior coach, so eventually he became the technical director because he was running both the senior and youth areas. He had all of these computerised manuals to set up sessions, and I was sceptical in the beginning regarding how he would be on the field, in terms of practical sessions; but once he got involved I saw he knew what he was doing.
He wasn’t a social person. We had functions and award dinners and he would attend, and sometimes a friend from Portugal would visit. But mostly he would watch TV and follow football around the world and work a lot on the computer. I don’t know if he did any cooking himself. He bought a lot of takeouts, a lot of fast food, chicken and chips, things like that.
José Eduardo Simões
Académica de Coimbra president who gave Villas-Boas his first club managerial job with the team struggling in October 2009
Before I employed André he simply did not have a reputation in Portugal. Very few people knew him, even as a member of José Mourinho’s staff at Chelsea [in 2004-07] and at Internazionale [in 2008-09]. André and I had a mutual friend who told me about his abilities and skills and when we met it was clear that he was prepared to take over a professional club such as Académica and that he viewed any difficulties as challenges.
Does he maintain a distance from players? Keeping a distance is more an attitude. We have a saying in Portugal: “Work is work; cognac is cognac.” This means everyone has to understand his place. As for losing his temper, what does it mean? He can scream at one or two players, but never lose self-control. He prefers to correct, to encourage, to improve intensity, making the training session or match more aggressive. And, more important, have each player thinking about what he has to do to make the team stronger.
Although his experience as a coach is still limited, and he may not have come across problematic, de-motivated players who act as a negative influence, I strongly believe he would be able to solve such a situation.
He definitely has a sense of humour and he is addicted to text messages. In November 2009 he nearly became the Sporting Lisbon coach. Although I clearly disliked the possibility, I gave him permission to negotiate with Sporting. Fortunately they did not reach an agreement . So he sent me a text saying: “Dear President, it looks like we will continue having lunch together and talking football!”
Or, in August 2010, when he was managing FC Porto and Académica beat Benfica in Lisbon in the league’s opening fixture he immediately texted me a message saying: “Thank you President, you’re already helping me to be this years’ champion!”
Markus Berger
Académica defender, who played under Villas-Boas in the 2009-10 season before the manager moved to FC Porto
He came to the club when we were in a very difficult situation, bottom of the league and he changed everything. He talked a lot with the players, he gave a lot of confidence to us and I think, at that moment, this was very important. As a professional footballer I don’t think it mattered that he had not been a player. Straightaway he convinced every player that we could turn the season around. It’s something in André’s nature – you trust him, he’s a nice guy. But he’s also always telling you you have to be better, you have to make better passes, you have to be better in the practice sessions, you have to give everything.
He does not shout – I never once saw him lose his temper. If you make a mistake he talks with you about how to be better. But he’s always on the side of the players and he can certainly improve them. I can speak for myself: he has his own style of play, he wants the central defenders to open the game and as I am a central defender I learned a lot from him. He has everything under control and somehow manages to involve everyone from the president down; even those players who didn’t play, he had them working together. So this is good for morale.
I am convinced he will be successful at Chelsea. I’ve seen some of the team’s games in the Asia Cup and Chelsea are playing his style: he likes a quick, dynamic approach. He wants the team to play short balls, keep possession and not unload many long balls. Already I think that Chelsea are progressing.
ChelseaAndré Villas-BoasJamie Jacksonguardian.co.uk
