Chelsea's young pretender has the old master in his sights

Chelsea managers' first game against United

Sam Wallace
Saturday 17 September 2011 05:00 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

When Sir Alex Ferguson was appointed manager of Manchester United in November 1986, Andre Villas-Boas had celebrated his ninth birthday the previous month and was, by his own admission, too "in love" with his hometown team of Porto to pay much attention to the latest attempt by one of English football's faded giants to resurrect themselves.

Tomorrow at Old Trafford, Villas-Boas, 33, will shake hands with Ferguson, 69, before attempting to beat the old master. Whether he likes it or not, the issue of his relative youth will follow Villas-Boas around for some time yet and, it would be fair to say, that is never more significant than it will be tomorrow when he faces a man whose three sons are all older than Chelsea's new Portuguese manager.

Yesterday, ahead of the game against Manchester United, Villas-Boas walked a difficult line between being respectful to Ferguson without being overtly deferential. Of course the old boy deserves great respect for his achievements but no opposing manager should ever forget that Ferguson is first and foremost an adversary, and a bloody ruthless one at that. It does not help your cause to bend at the knee.

Furthermore, every English manager of this era has grown up with Ferguson as the dominant force of the last 18 years and he looms large over all of them. Villas-Boas, schooled in a very different football environment, one in which life revolved around his childhood obsession, Porto, the same is not so true. It was intriguing that on the subject of Jose Mourinho's occasional baiting of the likes of Arsène Wenger and Rafael Benitez, Villas-Boas said: "I don't feel it plays [sic] that much importance."

In a rare insight into his emotions, Villas-Boas said of his team selection: "I have to pick my team first, then the 18. When everybody is so good, it takes... you can almost become sentimental, but it takes a bit of my heart out."

Tomorrow will be two days short of the fourth anniversary of Mourinho's dramatic departure from Chelsea which itself came three days before a league game at Old Trafford. Villas-Boas left with him that evening, his last scouting dossier on United rendered redundant. Four years on, the protégé is back.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in