Villas-Boas pays price for Liverpool drubbing
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Tottenham Hotspur fired manager Andre Villas-Boas yesterday, a day after the club slumped to a second heavy loss in the English Premier League in less than a month.
Tottenham’s embarrassing 0-5 loss at home to Liverpool on Sunday came after a 0-6 defeat at Manchester City on November 24 and left Spurs seventh in the standings, five points from the fourth Champions League spot.
Villas-Boas joined Tottenham in July 2012 and was looking to rebuild his reputation in England, having been fired by Chelsea four months earlier. He was dismissed by Spurs halfway through a three-year contract.
The Portuguese coach failed to guide Spurs into this season’s Champions League. An offseason spending spree of more than 100 million pounds (US$160 million) on mostly attacking players to offset the loss of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid hasn’t worked out.
“The club can announce that agreement has been reached with head coach, Andre Villas-Boas, for the termination of his services,” Tottenham said in a statement. “The decision was by mutual consent and in the interests of all parties.”
Russia manager Fabio Capello, the former England head coach, was swiftly installed as the British bookmakers’ favorite to succeed Villas-Boas, who first came to prominence at Porto.
Swansea City manager Michael Laudrup is also reported to be in contention, but the agent of Guus Hiddink ruled the experienced Dutchman out of the running as he is due to become coach of the Netherlands after next year’s World Cup.
“I would be surprised if (Hiddink) went to Spurs. I could hardly imagine that happening,” Cees van Nieuwenhuizen told Britain’s Press Association.
“He has just signed a contract with Holland and he has also turned down offers from other countries recently to coach them at the World Cup, so I wouldn’t take any talk of Guus going to Tottenham seriously.”
Villas-Boas is the fifth Premier League manager to lose his job this season, after Paolo Di Canio (Sunderland), Ian Holloway (Crystal Palace), Martin Jol (Fulham) and Steve Clarke (West Bromwich Albion).
Tottenham’s summer splurge to bring in established internationals such as Paulinho, Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Roberto Soldado has failed to produce immediate results, with the team scoring just 15 goals in 15 league games. Spurs didn’t even manage a shot on target against Liverpool.
Bale won many games almost single-handedly for Tottenham last season and his departure has been sorely felt.
“This is a top-four squad but in our Premier League form we are not there,” the 36-year-old Villas-Boas said after the Liverpool match, when he pledged that he wouldn’t resign. “We admit that in the Premier League things aren’t going in any shape or form the way we want.”
Spurs qualified for the knockout stage of the Europa League with a group game to spare.
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