Andre Villas-Boas blew his the chance to become Burnley manager in
2010 after officials from the club were left "confused" by the
Portuguese coach following an extravagant interview.
PA PhotosAndre Villas-Boas has so far struggled to impose his vision on the English game
Villas-Boas,
34, was keen to get a break in English football two years ago and
viewed the Burnley job as his ideal platform following the departure of
Owen Coyle to Bolton.
In the end, the relatively unheralded Brian
Laws was viewed as a safer option to Burnley in their ultimately doomed
attempt to cling onto their Premier League status, with Villas-Boas
forced to wait for his chance to establish himself as a top tier
manager.
In his new book Magical: A Life in Football,
ex-Burnley chief executive Paul Fletcher reveals he was left bamboozled
by the complexity of Villas-Boas' vision of the game and feared the
Burnley players would be equally confused.
"He sent a very
detailed and lengthy application for the job," Fletcher said. "His CV
and PowerPoint presentation was amazing. If you'd showed it to some of
our old managers, they'd have said, 'Blazes, what the hell does it all
mean?'
"Even by today's standards there was some complicated stuff
in it, with some things that I didn't understand. With hindsight, we
might have appointed him, but at the time it would have been too big a
risk.
"The language and jargon of football gets worse by the day.
Villas-Boas uses a lot of it. Would Burnley players have ever understood
what he wanted if he'd told them to 'solidificate' or some of his other
terms?"
Villas-Boas recovered from the setback of missing out on
the Burnley job to enjoy huge success at FC Porto, and is currently at
Tottenham Hotspur after a disappointing spell with Chelsea last season.
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