The new Tottenham Hotspur boss has criticised his former Chelsea employer for ‘losing his nerve.’
“I told him that for me it was him quitting on me when he had been so much involved in the beginning in bringing me in and he was the one also who was not putting up to the things he promised.”
Yes Abramovich did ‘quit on him’ if that is how Villas-Boas wants to describe it, most would simply take the view that he sacked the under performing boss.
In installing Roberto di Matteo, AVB’s number two, the squad had an immediate lift, starting with their Champions League turnaround against Napoli.
The rest is history, Chelsea went onto lift the FA Cup and the Champions League.
Had Di Matteo disappointed, Abramovich would be starting all over again and searching for a new boss. The words from AVB would carry a lot more weight, and the Russian owner may well have been wondering whether he was wrong to move the Portuguese manager on.
But in the context of Chelsea’s success, Abramovich will likely not care one bit what his former employee has to say.
It was the senior figures in the squad, Lampard, Cole, Drogba, who the boss clashed with, who Di Matteo was able to get the best out of when he took over.
AVB was right in insisting there was a long-term plan at Chelsea to take, Drogba, Bosingwa, Kalou, Anelka, and Alex are five senior players moved on within the past 12 months and there will likely be more.
Incoming are Eden Hazard, Marko Marin, Kevin de Bruyne, and again there will be additional signings.
So Abramovich has not actually deviated from his plan to change things up at all, the only differential was that Villas-Boas showed during the season that he could not be trusted to carry it out and himself be part of it.
AVB was actually doing more harm than good, trying to do too much too soon, concentrating on the future and in turn hampering the present, at a time when the squad were still capable of winning trophies – as Di Matteo proved.
The new Tottenham boss describes it as a tough learning experience, and will hope for more time and less egos at his new club- with who he says he wants to lead to the Premier League title, and while he can be aggrieved at the way life worked out for him at Chelsea, he only has himself to blame.
It’s time for him to draw a line under it and move forward, and that should involve making all the signings he needs to take the team to the next level, as soon as possible, for he will not want to leave himself another season of transition to manage through.
image: © Vladimir Maiorov
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