What can Chelsea fans expect from Villas-Boas? [Part 3]

Makelele also wrote in his autobiography Tout Simplement.

“Between 2004 and 2006 the solidarity in the Chelsea camp was amazing. Mourinho then broke all that when he banned key elements to make way for certain players who were treated as ‘stars’. “During that third complete season under his control, I was stunned to see how Mourinho forgot the value of his players and claimed all the credit for for everything.

“To him, individuals didn’t make the team work well, his methods did. At the end Mourinho gave the impression that he felt threatened as soon as a player was in the spotlight more than him.”

Is it in Andre Villas-Boas character to alienate squad members and have rifts that damage relationships?

Analysing Andre Villas-Boas squad use he seems to have gone out of his way to include and use his full squad to its full ability.

Falcao has said:

“he has made 24 players at this club feel relevant and important – and that is not easy.”

As Falcao says, it’s never easy to keep a whole squad happy, there are always likely to be fringe players, but, in terms of values as a man as Glen Johnson has said managers have to stick to their words and you have to be able to trust them.

In his plans for success this season, Villas Boas claimed he still relied on every one of his squad members, and had no plans to sell anyone in the January transfer window. Fringe players such as Andre Castro and Ukra, as well as summer signing James Rodriguez, had featured little before January, but Villas-Boas insisted they all still remained in his plans.

“They are important players. I have praised both Castro and Ukra publicly and privately. I don’t want to lose them. James has incredible potential and I intend to make him realise it. He will have an opportunity against Juventude Evora. This will be a good opportunity for him, but it’s not definitive. It won’t be his last, that’s for sure.

“I have good options. The squad here is big, but it is a manageable number.”

I think the honesty displayed here by Villas-Boas is very positive, despite Porto’s embarrassment of riches in terms of midfield and attacking options, Rodriguez did force his way into the starting line-up with increasing frequency.

In the last game of the season Rodriguez put in a memorable performance, scoring a hat-trick and setting up two goals as Porto won the Portuguese Cup final 6-2 against Vitoria Guimaraes. Having a manager that is honest to his players and willing to reward them with a chance when they deserve is I suggest a a very positive character trait for an incoming Chelsea manager to have.

In terms of egoism and the placement of credit, I think it’s normal for a manager to publicly insist that the players deserve all of the credit.

Andre Villas-Boas detailed how he was proud of his Academica players as they started to pick up victories that they were estranged from up until he had become manager.

“I’m very satisfied. The victory belongs to the players. They have progressed from a team that trains well to one that applies what they have learned on the pitch,” said a delighted Villas Boas in the post-match interview.

The young coach refused to take all the credit for Academica’s radical turnaround in fortunes.

“It’s not only my arrival that has changed things. The players have applied themselves on the pitch. The idea is to get the maximum out of every squad member.”

Mourinho has also publicly shunned credit instead asking for praise to be redirected towards the players, but in his actions, it was always clear that he wanted the lime-light. At this point it does seem that Villas-Boas isn’t as concerned with being awarded with all of the praise, but, as with Mourinho time began to unmask some of Mourinho’s less desirable qualities, there is still time for some of Villas-Boas undesirable qualities to come to light.

Positive character traits that both José Mourinho and André Villas-Boas do share is both passion and ambition, an ice-cool customer off the pitch, the Villas-Boas was nevertheless one of the Primeira Liga’s most expressive characters during matches, and could be seen urging his players on, I think that a common misconception is that Villas-Boas is always very calm.

In an upcoming piece I detail the problems with temperament that André Vilas-Boas had that saw him receive multiple match bans, as well as his ongoing exchange of words with rival managers. Doesn’t that remind you of someone else we know? The piece following this article however, looks specifically at Andre Villas-Boas teams footballing identity.

Read Part One of the blog HERE and Part Two HERE