da aposte e ganhe： PSG’s interest in Andre Villas-Boas should be an indicator as to just how much of an asset Tottenham have in their dugout. It shouldn’t really be news though, and it certainly won’t be to Daniel Levy.
da mrbet： Initially, the English media did all they could to hack away at the reputation of the Portuguese, sometimes acting with deserved criticism but often showing a level of remorselessness that was wholly out of place. But for a club of PSG’s wealth to target the Spurs manager is to catapult his name into a category compiling the leading managerial names in football.
The days at Chelsea should be forgotten. No manager should have his name tarnished based on a spell in charge at Stamford Bridge. That should be fairly self-explanatory. The fact that some sections of the media chose to take aim at Villas-Boas before his career at White Hart Lane really begun is shameful. But abroad, the former Porto man still holds that deserved level of respect, for whatever may be said about Portuguese football and its status among European counterparts, it’s still an astonishing feat to go through a campaign unbeaten, adding a European trophy alongside domestic accolades and doing it all in your first season in charge.
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Spurs are getting a good sense of where Villas-Boas may take them. The small victories in the overall battle for fourth place are worth writing home about. Villas-Boas took Spurs to the final day still well within a chance of overtaking Arsenal for fourth, and he did it with a squad that wasn’t exactly what he wanted or required. The new front that has opened up for Levy is to now ensure he can retain the services of both his star player and a star manager, for at the moment, who else is there available to Spurs that can equal Villas-Boas?
Losing Bale is part of the game; clubs surrender their best each summer and have to deal with the task of moving on. That is made all the more easier with a good manager and the stability he provides. Losing both this summer could wash away the good work put in last season. It forces Tottenham back to the drawing board, scrambling to unearth a manager who can come in and do what the Portuguese has done and could likely do in the future. Good managers may be available and will certainly put forward their name to pair themselves with one of the top clubs in England, but like we’ve seen in the past, Juande Ramos being one of the better examples, it doesn’t always work out.
It should require Levy to show some flexibility. The market is open for a considerable amount of time and the Spurs chairman needs to make use of that. The money being spent should be seen as an investment rather than a gamble. After all, Spurs are hardly throwing around £30-40 million; an £18 million signing shouldn’t really be seen as too steep for a club of their ambitions.
But then you’d have to ask whether it makes sense for Villas-Boas to leave Spurs for Paris. The French heavyweights obviously see something in the Portuguese, something that does allow him to take a place on their shortlist after more prominent names in the game. Yet the length of the tenure on offer may not be too appealing. The stories linking Arsene Wenger to the managerial post at PSG won’t go away, and regardless of what Ivan Gazidis says about new contracts for the Arsenal manager, PSG are likely to remain extremely confident on landing the Frenchman next summer.
At Tottenham, Villas-Boas has the control, respect and security that was absent from his short stint at Chelsea. The control will only stretch so far, but it does seem to be a good working relationship between the manager and the chairman.
For now, this is the best Levy has had it with Tottenham. Despite the disappointments and failures of the past few seasons, they are very much on the brink of establishing themselves as a top four team in the Premier League. Gareth Bale can be replaced, either with a like-for-like or by spreading the responsibility over a number of new stars. Managers, however, are much harder to find – the very good ones especially who fit the mould for what certain clubs need. Chelsea are evidence of this; PSG, even if they land Wenger next season, are still likely to rotate frequently; Real Madrid can be just as knee-jerk as Chelsea.
Villas-Boas has managed to retain Spurs’ reputation as a top five club in England and made them a better footballing outfit over the previous manager. Part of the package in ensuring Villas-Boas remains at White Hart Lane is for Levy to make it quite clear that there is a drive from behind the scenes to continue this ascendency. The manager has held true to his end of the bargain; he needs to see that a snub to PSG is worth it for a long-term stay in London.
Do Tottenham need to go all out in order to retain Andre Villas-Boas this summer?
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