André Villas-Boas’ time at Tottenham Hotspur is today recalled by the Dutch media.
That’s because former Spurs midfielder, and big fan favourite, Rafael Van der Vaart had a word with NOS Studio Football about their time together at the club.
In quotes relayed by Soccer News, the Dutchman claimed Villas-Boas didn’t want him at Tottenham, and tried to get rid of him in multiple ways.
“He didn’t want me anymore. He had brought in Gylfi Sigurdsson and thought he was better, so I wanted to go back to HSV. I then called Daniel Levy: sort it out, I’ll be there tomorrow. The transfer did not go through. Then I got a call in my bed at night that HSV were on the plane to pick me up. That’s how things go,” said Van der Vaart.
Van der Vaart explained that he didn’t even have a chance to prove himself to the Portuguese manager, as the coach arrived with the determination to keep him on the bench.
“I had two good years and Villas-Boas says on his first day: you are my second number 10. Well, I could kill him. I thought he was such an idiot. The coach that don’t pick you quickly becomes an idiot, but this was really unprecedented.”
As said by Van der Vaart, he’d been at Tottenham since 2010, with Villas-Boas only arriving at the club in the summer of 2012.
Tottenham finished fifth in his first season in charge, and with the results not going as expected in the following season, he was sacked in December 2013. His record at Spurs was 45 wins, 18 draws and 17 losses in 80 games.
Villas-Boas then worked at Zenit, Shangai SIPG and Marseille. He left the French club in February 2021, and hasn’t taken any jobs since then.
