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Andre Villas-Boas has pinpointed a decade of inconsistent managerial strategies as the primary factor behind Tottenham Hotspur’s current precarious position in the Premier League standings.
Villas-Boas, 48, once helmed Tottenham over a decade ago, guiding them through several campaigns where they were consistently vying for a spot in the Champions League. His tenure was marked by setting a club-record points total.
Following his exit in December 2013, the north London club has been through a revolving door of managers, with Roberto De Zerbi becoming the ninth permanent appointee since then. While Villas-Boas is taken aback by Spurs’ downturn, he admits that a series of misguided choices have finally taken their toll.
“The pressure in such situations is unparalleled,” he remarked.
Chopping and changing in the dugout is the root cause of Tottenham Hotspur’s relegation woe
“There are clubs and players accustomed to these high-stakes scenarios, and they often manage to secure their safety time and again.”
‘But there are other ones like Tottenham which can find it difficult. It’s really, really hard to see.’
Villas-Boas fully understands the complexities that come with entering a club wracked with instability and uncertainty over the future.
When he was elected as president of Porto, the club were in a particularly difficult moment financially and sticking to a plan that they believed in was key. They are now top of the Portuguese league, in the semi-final of the domestic cup and face Nottingham Forest in the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final on Thursday night.
For Tottenham, the lack of foresight to stick to a plan has been their undoing.
‘Eight managers in five years doesn’t help because all of them are very, very different to one another, different methods, different way of selecting players, so this leads to instability as well,’ Villas-Boas, speaking in his capacity as a Laureus Ambassador ahead of next week’s awards in Madrid, added.
‘What we have done at Porto, for example, when we found instability in the first year, we found stability right now in this year.
‘We opted to renew our manager. Not only because of the results, but because of the relationship he has with the structure.
‘Structure meaning scouting teams and youth-level teams in the way he promotes youth players coming through as well. So we believe in the stability going into the future.
‘With Tottenham, you probably never had that in any of the cases because there is the pressure of results.
‘But they have changed managers, they have changed the leading structures, they have changed also sports directors as well, from (Franco) Baldini to (Fabio) Paratici to the current sports director (Johan Lange).’
That is the opinion of former Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas, who has spoken to Daily Mail Sport
Villas-Boas (right) is hopeful that Roberto De Zerbi (left) can formulate a plan Spurs can believe in
Asked if Roberto De Zerbi, a man who is in firefighting mode after losing his first game in charge away to Sunderland while their relegation rivals picked up crucial points, can finally set Spurs on a path to prosperity, Villas-Boas remained bullish.
‘De Zerbi has to deliver results,’ he concluded.
‘It’s a long term contract anyway, so probably they have found out that those things that I mentioned here (about instability of ideas), De Zerbi will be able to deliver to them.
‘And if eventually they go down, they can come back up because they have the infrastructure and the quality of the players and the resources to do it.’
The 2026 Laureus World Sports Awards will be staged in Madrid, a global city of sport, on Monday 20th April. Visit: www.laureus.comÂ