Exit wounds all round as Andre Villas Boas falls on his sword

The end was brutal and mercifully swift. Andre Villas Boas had cut a dazed and lonely picture on the pitch as Raheem Sterling scored the fifth goal to complete Liverpool’s demolition job and leave him at the mercy of Daniel Levy’s judgement. Like a peasant at the mercy of a Roman Emperor. AVB has off course been here before with a certain Roman Emperor down Kings Road. He had survived to tell the tale and he was now plotting to overthrow the said Roman Empire, now being overseen ironically by his mentor and one time friend, Jose Mourinho.  To his credit, he did not hide from the after match press conference. He took the predictable grilling from the press pack while trying grimly to hang on to his credibility for all it was worth, but he looked a beaten man, with all the confidence of a turkey, who knows what it’s like to be stuffed at this time of the year. And so with one downward point of Daniel Levy’s thumb, the era of Andre Villas Boas, 39^th manager of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and 11^th to lead the first team (including caretakers but not directors of football!) since the reign of King Daniel Levy was consigned to history.

So why or where did it go wrong for AVB? How should we judge AVB as a manager? And is Daniel Levy any closer to establishing our great club firmly back in the big time?

To answer the first question, one has to look no further than Gareth Bale. Bale was AVB’s gift and curse. Since 2010, Bale has been Spurs star player and inspiration. Despite the presence of outstanding players like Luka Modric and Rafael Van Der Vaart, Bale gave Spurs a swagger we have not had since David Ginola flicked his admittedly gorgeous hair all over White hart lane. AVB’s great success in 2012 was inspiring even greater performances from Bale and adding at least another forty million pounds to his transfer value. The 2012/2013 season did much to restore some of AVB’s credibility, so much so that Paris St Germaine came sniffing for his services. With Bale’s world record transfer however, AVB was exposed. While Spurs spent heavily in the transfer market, the three players AVB wanted more than any other escaped his grasp. From day one on the job, Joao Moutinho has been his number one target. The midfield general that will set the tempo for Spurs. The others were Hulk and Willian. But for Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, Willian would have been delivered. The other players would have enhanced the squad. However, the Hulk deal never looked like materialising and Moutinho ended up at moneybags, Monaco. This made this season a very testing one for AVB. He also appeared to ignore Adebayor rather too hastily. Undoubtedly, none of the signings have shone consistently, nonetheless, he started solidly enough. The alarm bells first rang when West ham mugged us at the Lane. The dissenting voices among fans, critics and press increased due to an increasingly discernible lack of tempo.  However it was the manner of the heavy defeats to Manchester City and Liverpool that really sealed his fate. For such an astute tactician, AVB seemed unable to affect some matches and confidence looked alarmingly fragile.

So was AVB a success or a failure? At first glance, the answer is obvious. After all, you don’t get sacked for being successful do you? However, the evidence is not so conclusive. AVB loves his statistics and would take comfort from the fact that statistically his win percentage in all competitions places him third highest on the all-time list of Spurs managers. Statistically he has the highest win percentage of any Spurs manager in the premier league era and no Spurs manager in premiership history has ended the season with more points.  Set against that is the fact that no trophies were won, semi- finals or finals contested, no champions league. A harsh indictment perhaps, but Spurs have moved up a level since Daniel Levy became chairman. Previously unheard of sums of money are now being spent on players regularly and most crucially, recent managers have been in no doubt about what is expected of them when they join Spurs. Most Spurs fans will just about tolerate a lack of trophies if the team is playing entertaining football consistently and at least challenging for the big prizes. This has been AVB’s chief crime this season and left him without a safety net when results turned against him. AVB has however won a league title in Portugal, a league tougher than Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Scotland. He remains the youngest manager ever to win a European title and has earned the respect of players like Willian, Moutinho, Falcao and Gareth Bale. And yet, AVB has yet to complete a second season at ANY club he has managed.  AVB still has plenty of admirers in the game, talks a great game and there are plenty of managers with far worse records than his. His credibility will be the source of much debate. I can only conclude that, in spite of his success with Porto, outside of his native Portugal, Andre Villas Boas has not been a lucky manger so far.  

So where does this leave Levy’s ambition for Spurs?

Like Roman Abramovic at Chelsea, Daniel Levy has always wanted an A-List manager to take Spurs into the big time. Unlike Abramovic at Chelsea, he has not been able to bring the very best managers to Spurs. Glen Hoddle was a populist if welcome move. Harry Rednapp was a desperate move to avoid the threat of relegation and turned out better than expected before imploding because of the England job that never was. Juande Ramos was a rising star in Spanish football following his work with Sevilla but struggled to adapt outside of Spain, Jacques Santini had overseen one of France’s worst tournament performances prior to taking over while Martin Jol established Spurs as top five, top six  but could not make the final break through.  All of the above are decent managers in their own right. However Levy has wanted more from his managers since dispensing with Glen Hoddle. His tenure at Spurs has seen a cross between the extravagant spending of Chelsea and the financial prudence of Arsenal. However, without completely going one way or the other, Spurs have been at a sort of halfway house, tantalisingly close to a breakthrough but not quite getting there. Ecstasy and agony been delivered too closely, too often to be good for the old ticker. 

His chosen one, perhaps surprisingly is the previously untested Tim Sherwood. A Redknapp protégé who is well thought of at Spurs due to his work with the development squad which has given us Harry Kane, Tom Carroll, Andros Townsend and most recently the promising Nabil Bentaleb.  How will he get on? Time will tell, however If history is any judge, Tim will have to outdo his mentor and show the tactical suaveness of a fancy continental coach. Above all, he will need to be lucky.  In one sense, he already is by getting this job. It is a far healthy situation than most managers walk into mid-season. Spurs are still within breathing distance of the top of the league in this most open of seasons and have a decent squad of players. Now Mr Tim Sherwood must walk the walk. It’s already squeaky bum time. A sensation Spurs fans have felt far too often in recent times. In fact Daniel Levy’s tenure at Spurs can be summarised as a squeaky bum ride. It’s never dull at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.