18 May 2011 07:55:00
André Villas-Boas (FC Porto)
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ANALYSIS
By Jonathan Birchall
The question of familiarity is at the centre of the debate regarding the employment of foreign managers in football. Uncertainty over a coach’s ability to speak their non-native tongue for example, is a source of great reservation from the boardroom to the boot room.
How perfect it would be then, for a manager with the intrinsic qualities of learning the sport from foreign fields to understand the intricacies of the English version of the beautiful game.
Step forward Andre Villas-Boas; the continent’s hottest managerial property with a CV bolstered with English names, references and experiences.
For a start, the language barrier is not an issue for a man whose grandmother was originally from Stockport in Greater Manchester before she moved to Guimarães in the north of Portugal.
He picked up the language from her and it has certainly been a useful addition to his armoury in the football world. No translator required for a coach whose side have won 84 per cent of their games on their way to the Portuguese title and a place in the Europa League final, for which they are favourites.
However, the links between the 33-year-old and English football stretch further than family ties. It was under the tutelage of Sir Bobby Robson, manager of Porto at the time, through which Villas-Boas got his first break into the game.
Only 16 at the time, the man who has been linked with a raft of clubs in both England and Italy shared an apartment block with Robson and impressed the former England boss with a dossier regarding one of the Portuguese side’s strikers at the time.
The teenager’s commitment to detail, as well as his bilingual abilities, convinced Robson to give him a role in the club’s scouting department and later helped him begin earning his Uefa coaching badges. Under the wing of one of the greats of the English game, an unknown Portuguese teenager was given a chance to shine and with a professionalism that belied his tender years. He took it.
Britain-bound? | Villas-Boas has been linked with a move to the Premier League
Soon after, the youngster from the Iberian peninsula had moved to England and worked under George Burley at Ipswich Town, further enhancing his experience as a tactician and scout of opposition threats. Burley later said of him: “I remember Andres as a really nice fella, who was very intelligent and wanted to learn. It’s great to experience different cultures.”
Not just any old internship for a prodigy yet to reach 21, Villas-Boas went to the FA’s former youth academy base at Lilleshall in Shropshire and finished his Uefa qualifications. His footballing degree was complete.
He would return once again to the UK in 2004, west London specifically, as he followed Jose Mourinho to Chelsea having become an integral part of the now-Real Madrid coach’s scouting set-up back at Porto, the champions of Europe.
Two titles followed at Stamford Bridge where the man whom Mourinho described as his “eyes and ears” used his experience of both the Portuguese and English styles to create DVDs and dossiers on the Blues’ counterparts. He left with Mourinho to Inter but has since become the master of his own ship and has already sailed to success at the Estadio Dragao
The question that remains now is if and when he’ll be back.
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“If Chelsea were to appoint him, he would be taking over a squad of a similar age to him. He is younger than Didier Drogba“ |
The story of Villas-Boas is a remarkable one and his current record would suggest that a move to the Premier League would be lucrative in regards to silverware. If he were to join Chelsea, as has been touted as his most likely destination, he would take over a squad in which many are of a similar age to himself. He is younger, for example, than Didier Drogba.
However, when considering that the man began coaching at 16, there is little to the argument that he lacks experience. Even more reassuring to the owners of clubs eyeing up Villas-Boas is his commitment to working to the most minute of detail, a trait similar to that of Sir Bobby Robson, who let us not forget is regarded as the finest Three Lions boss since Sir Alf Ramsey won the World Cup in 1966 and Mourinho, whose successes during his short time in England are laudable enough to forgive his unerring self-confidence.
The Porto boss may be reluctant to acknowledge his similarities to Jose Mourinho but there is one link that even he would struggle to deny. Because just like the Special One who waxes lyrical of the Premier League so frequently, the green fields of England’s football pitches clearly have a special place in the heart of Andre Villas-Boas.