Phillip Buckley

In comedic acting, it is all about the timing. It is that fine line, often measured in milliseconds, that separates the average from the exceptional, the performances that cause the audience to laugh so hard their body convulses in pain, compared with those that arouse a mild chuckle. But it’s not just comedy in which the knack of timing is a route to the top; football management can be placed in the same bracket. Take over a club at the wrong time and disaster surely looms. Enter at just the right moment and even average work will see a manager feted to the heavens. Leave just as your audience wants more and be forever remembered fondly, as a miracle worker and a benchmark to which other future managers are compared. The greats of management, from Jupp Heynckes to Sir Alex Ferguson, conquered all through their timing. No coach is a God. Yet some plotting the rubble strewn path to glory without barely putting a foot wrong can make it seem as if they do have a divine touch. As Andre Villas-Boas reflects upon a ‘failed’ tenure at White Hart Lane following his sacking as Tottenham Hotspur manager, he could do worse than glance towards his old friend Jose Mourinho, the man for whom timing is an art form.

It all started so well for Villas-Boas. He learned under Mourinho, most notably at Chelsea and Inter, before striking out on his own, impressing in Portugal with Academica. A chance to really follow in Mourinho’s footsteps came at FC Porto, where Villas-Boas succeeded experienced tactician Jesualdo Ferreira, who had won three Primeira Liga titles in four seasons; the last barren season being enough to see him shown the door. A roaring campaign followed during which Benfica simply imploded, Sporting Lisbon recorded their lowest points total for a decade and Villas-Boas’ men lined up against CSKA Moscow, Spartak Moscow, Villarreal and Braga in their last four ties in Europe. The result? A Porto league, cup and Europa League treble. The timing was perfect. Villas-Boas really was the ‘new Mourinho’.
 

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Only he wasn’t. The Portuguese’s next move showed that when it came to timing, he wasn’t in Mourinho’s league. Mourinho swapped Porto for Chelsea when the odds were stacked in his favour. Owner Roman Abramovich was still in his first flush of football love; Claudio Ranieri had done the dirty work of integrating a number of big-money buys, while rivals Manchester United were embarking on an uncharacteristic three-year title drought, Liverpool bedding in a new manager and changing course under Rafael Benitez, and Arsenal feeling the financial restrictions associated with the upcoming Emirates Stadium. Mourinho still had hard work to do, but good timing meant he had a hand none could better. 

Villas-Boas however headed to a very different environment at Stamford Bridge. Carlo Ancelotti had just been sacked after finishing second in the Premier League – he had won the league the season before – while Manchester United and Manchester City were soon to be locked in an arms race at the top of the table. After Ancelotti, only winning the league would be good enough and Chelsea boasted a dressing room packed with strong characters Villas-Boas’ still forming man-management skills were not equipped to handle; it was poor timing from the man held up as the ‘new Mourinho’.

Luckily for Villas-Boas, a Chelsea contract termination is not viewed as firmly in the ‘failure’ column as would be the case at most clubs. The story was soon out, at least Villas-Boas’ side. He had not been given enough time; the dressing room was a vipers’ nest; if only Chelsea had stayed the course success would have been delivered. As fans turned their attention to Euro 2012, a number of clubs sounded out Villas-Boas – Roma, Liverpool, Tottenham. It was to White Hart Lane the Portuguese headed, as Spurs chairman Daniel Levy smelt what he thought was the whiff of Mourinho still lingering on the young, thrusting manager. From Harry Redknapp, the man Rafael van der Vaart revealed never used tactics boards, to a coach fully engaged with modern methods, Spurs were ushering in a revolution. But while the move might have looked perfectly fine for Villas-Boas on the surface, the Portuguese was gambling. Under Redknapp, Tottenham had finished fourth for two of the last three seasons, only denied Champions League football in 2012/13 due to Chelsea winning the competition. Villas-Boas must have known a top four spot was a minimum target and one that would not be easy as Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea all had superior financial firepower to Spurs. A fifth-place finish in his first season only heaped on the pressure for his second.

When Mourinho left Chelsea he was in no rush to take his next job. The Portuguese knew the importance of the ‘right’ club. And yet again his timing proved perfect, assuming control of an Inter side who, helped by the decimation the Calciopoli scandal had wrought on their rivals, were miles ahead of the pack. Inter won the Serie A title by ten points in Mourinho’s first season, never really ever being troubled by second-placed AC Milan, who lost eight times. In 2009/10, Roma came too close for comfort, finishing two points behind a by then ageing Inter. Winning a second Serie A title, along with the Coppa Italia and the Champions League was the perfect time for Mourinho to bid farewell, leaving the Nerazzurri faithful wanting more. They still want more. Mourinho remains a god for Inter fans to this day.
 


Villas-Boas could have learned from his master this summer, before placing his head neatly in place, arranging his affairs and waiting for Levy’s axe. In an incredible stroke of luck, the former Porto coach fell onto Paris Saint-Germain’s radar. Ancelotti had left for Real Madrid, sending the French champions scurrying for a replacement. The job was Villas-Boas’ if he wanted it. But the Portuguese tactician chose to stay put at Tottenham. Villas-Boas was unhappy with PSG’s offer of only a one-year deal, but could have pushed for an extra year if he was serious about taking over at the Parc des Princes. It would have been perfect timing. Tottenham were selling Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, the perfect departure vehicle for Villas-Boas, who could have accused the club of lacking ambition, while he would have taken over at a side who would have to self-destruct badly to not win the Ligue 1 title. PSG boasted Champions League football and a different financial reality from Spurs, sitting too in a league with no real competitors; Monaco should become contenders in time, but this is the side’s first season back in Ligue 1. It is not hard to imagine Mourinho would have taken the post if in Villas-Boas’ position. The odds would have been stacked in his favour. Yet the young former Porto coach stayed put and now, just months later, is out of a job.

It would be easy to focus on Villas-Boas’ obvious failings at Spurs: a baffling tendency to pick the wrong players at key times, a leaky defence, little in the way of stirring motivation for his charges, criticising the club’s fans for not backing the team sufficiently, and perhaps the biggest issue, failing to spend over £100m in the summer on game-changing acquisitions. Villas-Boas may well point a finger at the club’s sporting director Franco Baldini on the transfer front, but it is the Portuguese who insisted upon his appointment, even specifying it as a source of faith from Spurs. “The club followed me on several points, for example by appointing a technical director in Franco Baldini”, he revealed. What Villas-Boas should have realised was that in creating the structure in which a technical director could exist, he made the decision to dispense with his services so much easier.

But his biggest failure is one of timing. Villas-Boas could have been planning a training camp in Doha and doing the very light coaching that the talents of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani require in the warm winter Middle East sun. Tottenham fans would have wondered just what the former Chelsea manager might have been able to achieve had he stayed. And some would even have slammed the club’s owners for not showing the required ambition to keep the bright coaching talent. Some of the sparkle which Mourinho sprinkled over Villas-Boas would have remained. Now he is just another manager, looking for his next post and unlikely to be handed the keys to a Ferrari any time soon. And as Ibrahimovic has said, why be a Fiat when you can be a Ferrari?

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