Transfers, tactics, stubborn attitude: Here's why Tottenham fired AVB

You can handpick the number of clubs in the world that will allow you time, £100 million to spend and the authority to build a club. Modern day football is like that — you can complain about it all the time, but you cannot change it. And Andre Villas-Boas’ sacking as Tottenham Hotspur manager after their 0-5 defeat to Liverpool at home is just another throw of the dice in the game of gambling on managers and short-term success. This time though, there seems to be a consensus that his stint was up. He did a remarkable job at times no doubt — but some of his decisions were baffling for such a talented coach. Eventually, it wasn’t the team’s style or the results that may have got him — it may have been his stubborn streak and refusal to accept the fact that he wasn’t the only decision maker in a club which follows the dreaded system involving technical directors and co-ordinators who have the chairman’s ear more than the manager’s. [caption id=“attachment_1291841” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Out in the cold. Getty Images[/caption] As has been mentioned in this BBC feature , the seeds of trouble were sown as soon as Gareth Bale left the club. But to their credit, Spurs managed to turn a summer of gloom into a summer of anticipation by splurging every penny they received from the Bale transfer on Erik Lamela, Roberto Soldado, Christian Eriksen, Etienne Capoue, Nacer Chadli, Paulinho and Vlad Chiriches. Chairman Daniel Levy is very demanding, but credit to him to give AVB a chance after what happened at Chelsea. But with such an influx of first-team players, AVB should probably have been afforded more time to build. But what went wrong can be put into two broad categories: Tactics: If you read this Telegraph article from 2011, you will realise that perhaps AVB puts too much thought into his football. Just too much. At Porto, his tactics were simple — play vertical football, pass the ball quick, be ruthless on the finish. But there, he had Radamel Falcao and Hulk to fall back on. Porto’s midfield was so-so, but AVB’s football was simple — forward, forward, forward. Somewhere in the transition from Portugal to England, he forgot that style. In a sense, that is the Tottenham way — push the ball to the wingers, draw defenders in and play direct football. AVB, as the stories go , he had dossiers and reports on everything. It was just too meticulous for a bunch of new players to digest. AVB forgot about his low-block defence and suddenly started playing a high-line (and got destroyed by Manchester City and Liverpool in the process), his team started playing the ball around meaninglessly and horizontally. All these, he admits, is not his style. He needs to go back to the drawing board. Transfers and starting XIs: Franko Baldini is the technical director of the club and certainly has a hand in which players come in. AVB, from his media interactions, has always looked like an insecure manager. He hated it when Baldini’s coordinator Tim Sherwood came to watch training sessions. He always looks like a man who has a gun to his head. Even with transfers, while they were big names, AVB supposedly didn’t have the final say. Lamela has hardly got a game and Soldado has been deprived of service from the wings. Why didn’t Andros Townsend get more games when he was at the peak of his form and what’s with the blind eye towards Jermaine Defoe? AVB fell into a trap of playing intricate football in a league which doesn’t allow it — and with players who couldn’t play it. Only Eriksen and Paulinho look strong long-term investments. When at Chelsea, he said he wouldn’t change or sell his philosophy ‘cheaply’. We never saw his sound Porto 4-3-3 in England (they won the league unbeaten + the Europa League) — we only saw a boring 4-2-3-1. Looks like he did eventually sell his philosophy. AVB’s record is fantastic — the best of any Spurs manager since 1899. But he never gave in to adjustment. He must know better than anyone the nature of football these days. There has to be a compromise somewhere — AVB simply refused to believe that there were people above him who made the decisions. Be that as it may, it was his job to put the team together, to come down to their level because come on, no group of players is easily going to believe in a 36-year-old who has never played the game. He alienated himself. “Many players can’t understand the game. They can’t think about or read the game,” he once said. Looks like the tables have turned. It’s sad, but unless AVB goes back to basics and comes back stronger, a brilliant footballing brain will never see the light of another top-level club. The writer tweets @TheFalseNo9