‘LEVY’S £50M TO SELL ME’
FORMER Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas has accused the club’s chairman Daniel Levy of “extravagant leadership”.
The Portuguese coach spent 17 months working for Levy (below) before he was axed in December 2013.
And last month he saw his mentor, Jose Mourinho, booted out of Tottenham after a similar spell.
Speaking to the Keys & Gray podcast, Villas-Boas said: “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 SaintGermain rather than renewing me because my clause was £50million.
“So we started the second year 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 of 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.”
Told he is not the only one to run up against Levy’s ways, Villas-Boas added: “It all has to do with this extravagant leadership to take control of the clubs.
“And we saw with the failure of the Super League, the impact of these extravagant ideas. Basically, it’s people who are business people who want to set up their business without any respect for what is around, which is emotions and love.
“As surprising as the foundation of the Super League is, it’s much more astonishing the fact they have quit so soon. But it is what it is, extravagant leadership at clubs that keeps on happening.”
Ex-Chelsea boss Villas-Boas had to go to Russia to rediscover his love for the game after his time at Spurs.
He added: “In Russia, I found my love for coaching once again. In England, it wasn’t training sessions and preparing a game.
“England was putting out fires all the time, fires with agents, fires with Daniel, the handling of the media.” ■■Andre Villas-Boas was speaking on the latest Keys & Gray podcast, which is out now