Those stories of players who failed to land a player, hire a particular coach or executive are always interesting to hear. The latest concerns the former coach of Tottenham Hotspur and Olympique de Marseille, André Villas-Boas.
During an interview with the TelegraphVillas-Boas claimed that while coaching Spurs, Paris Saint-Germain were at the Premier League club with an offer to let him terminate his contract and have the Portuguese manager join PSG.
At the time, the French giants were trying to replace former coach Carlo Ancelotti, and Villas-Boas was the guy they wanted to replace the Italian tactician. However, he explains why the hiring did not take place.
« PSG’s offer was on the table, » Villas-Boas said. « Yes, Daniel [Levy, chairman of Spurs] wanted to sell me for 15 million euros. PSG obviously didn’t want to pay €15m and there were a lot of things wrong with Paris Saint-Germain, especially with their approach.
/wp-content/uploads/andre-villa-boas-man-city-marseille-ucl.jpg "Former Tottenham manager explained why he was dropped from PSG in 2013")
“I decided to stay, out of love for Tottenham. I think Tottenham were waiting for me to leave and that was it. This was the springboard for the start of a bad relationship in the second season. You should pay attention to details. At that time, we weren’t happy with each other. I stayed at Tottenham out of love for Tottenham and Tottenham wanted me to leave and that was it. It was the end of a story and we broke up after a very, very simple agreement.
PSG will hire Laurent Blanc in the final, who will spend three seasons at the head of the capital club. Blanc helped the French giants advance to the quarter-finals of the competition, which was the farthest they had come before reaching the 2020 UEFA Champions League final.
Nonetheless, Villas-Boas’ coaching career didn’t really take off, so maybe that was a blessing in disguise.