Andre Villas-Boas has revealed his time at Tottenham ended badly because Daniel Levy was hell-bent on selling him to Paris Saint-Germain.
The Lowdown: Villas-Boas’ spell at Tottenham
The Portuguese boss lasted 18 months at Spurs after being hired in the summer of 2012. He had a 56.25% win percentage in north London, pretty good for anyone using a LeoVegas Bonus at the time and only bettered by Mauricio Pochettino and Tim Sherwood at Tottenham in the Premier League era.
He has since gone on to manage Zenit St Petersburg, Shanghai SIPG and Marseille.
The Latest: AVB makes Levy claim
Speaking on the Key and Gray Podcast this weekend, published in the Sunday Mirror on May 9th (via Give Me Sport), Villas-Boas revealed Levy wanted him to go to PSG as they would have had to pay a considerable fee. He explained:
“Tottenham in the first year was very good.
“It was not easy with Daniel, I’m not the simplest of guys to work with but we had our ups and downs.
“We had a lot of fun in that first season and we reached the end of that season and I was expecting to renew with Tottenham after having refused to go to Paris Saint-Germain.
“But what I think is that Daniel was willing to sell me to Paris Saint-Germain rather than renewing me because my clause was £50m.
“So we started the second in bad animosity, Either way, we were very, very close to the top, we had more points when I reached an agreement to leave Tottenham than we had the season when we beat the record points.
“But the environment was not there anymore, the connection with me and Daniel and [then technical director] Franco Baldini, so it was also time to go.
“It all has to do with this extravagant leadership to take control of the clubs.”
The Verdict: Unsurprising
Villas-Boas failed to set the world alight at Tottenham, but his win percentage illustrated he actually did a decent job at the club. Given more time in a better atmosphere, he may well have been able to produce better results, but in the end it clearly wasn’t meant to be.
To hear that Levy wanted to push him out of the door so he could bring in a fee of £50m is unsurprising – the Spurs chairman is known as a hard negotiator who has an eye for a profit, recently leading to fan protests outside the stadium over his and ENIC’s running of the club.
Perhaps his decision on AVB came as a detriment to the chances of bringing silverware to north London, and it is certainly worrying to hear from someone who has been on the inside just how much the club value cash over success.
In other news, Glenn Hoddle has slammed this Levy decision.