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Villas-Boas "Tottenham Board Destroyed Everything I Built"

Khilari

Plumber. Sort of.
Jun 19, 2008
3,461
5,287
Pretty sad that Spurs fans are falling out over a manager who left >5y ago. WTF.

I regret posting and reviving this thread - seems just to open old wounds and trauma...!
 

Jonboy

Well-Known Member
Jul 15, 2005
1,151
990
Chill dude. You'll have a stroke. I'm curious did you go to games under Redknapp and see the football live?
And did you also do this under AVB?
I only ask because in years gone by when this conversation raises its head it turns out a lot of those defending AVB only jad to sit through 5mins of highlights on motd.
Not calling you armchair fan. Could be a season ticket holder for all I know. Could be DL lol.
Just curious.

Just to clarify I have never once defended AVB
 

Jonboy

Well-Known Member
Jul 15, 2005
1,151
990
Pretty sad that Spurs fans are falling out over a manager who left >5y ago. WTF.

I regret posting and reviving this thread - seems just to open old wounds and trauma...!

I’m 41 years old pal
I don’t fall out over differences of opinion
It’s a fact of life after all
 

rez9000

Any point?
Feb 8, 2007
11,942
21,098
I've got nothing but respect for Harry. I appreciate what he did for us and since his departure I've not seen or heard a disrespectful word about us from him - quite the contrary, I think he's been very complimentary about us.

I don't blame him for flirting with the England job. He's one of the old school for whom the England job would have been seen as the pinnacle of a management career.

As has been mentioned, his mistake was asking for an extension / pay rise at the wrong time, having been linked with the England job and having obviously coveted the role. But that was an error in judgement, rather than showing disrespect to a club.

And the comparison to Eriksen, I think, isn't a bad one. It's about the person's career. Redknapp felt that he wanted the England job as the next stage of his career and Eriksen has expressed a desire for a different next step in his career.

Ultimately, excoriating Redknapp for what he did is possibly a little harsh. Maybe criticising one or two actions is fair, but lambasting him completely is a bit too much.

As for AVB, he did his best, but it wasn't enough. I agree the football wasn't the best, but that happens sometimes, but he was passionate about the job and did what he could. That, at least, deserves some acknowledgement.
 

Jonboy

Well-Known Member
Jul 15, 2005
1,151
990
Forums are for discussion and opinions
I have not felt offended by anything said and equally hope I’ve not offended anyone else.
But I stand by my opinion wholeheartedly, whilst respecting others.
Someone put me on ignore for this conversation? I mean come on
Egos and onions
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,355
87,831
I quite liked AVB. He was a snappy dresser and had a sexy beard. He also gave us this:

giphy.gif


And of course, this:

WarmheartedIncompatibleDodo-size_restricted.gif
 

Jonboy

Well-Known Member
Jul 15, 2005
1,151
990
I quite liked AVB. He was a snappy dresser and had a sexy beard. He also gave us this:

giphy.gif


And of course, this:

WarmheartedIncompatibleDodo-size_restricted.gif

My wife used to say I loved him more than her
Truth is he was a disaster and I was that desperate for success I would of supported Winnie the Pooh just as passionately
 

Styopa

Well-Known Member
Jan 19, 2014
5,136
14,177
Obviously there were two or three aggravating factors related to Redknapp's departure. But I wonder if as much as anything Levy felt that Harry had run his course at the club. Redknapp was a total outlier in terms of managerial appointments under Levy. Our recruitment policy also radically changed with Redknapp as manager. My impression is Levy wanted to return to a more continental/modern set up sooner rather than later. This was reflected in the appointment of AVB.
 

danielneeds

Kick-Ass
May 5, 2004
24,179
48,764
I quite liked AVB. He was a snappy dresser and had a sexy beard. He also gave us this:

giphy.gif


And of course, this:

WarmheartedIncompatibleDodo-size_restricted.gif
I liked him too in that first season. Truth is that he had this child-like petulance that was easy to put down to his young age, but is most probably just a character flaw.
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,355
87,831
My wife used to say I loved him more than her
Truth is he was a disaster and I was that desperate for success I would of supported Winnie the Pooh just as passionately
We finished 5th with him. The following summer he and Levy clearly fell out over transfer targets, and as such AVB downed tools. It didn't help that the odious rat that was Sherwood was doing his best to undermine and weasel his way in. That ended up with the "mutual consent" departure. The biggest disaster was that Sherwood took over.

We are very lucky that the likes of Hugo, Verts etc didn't leave us that summer.
 

Ribble

Well-Known Member
Apr 13, 2011
3,505
4,777
Hadn't realised that AVB had been appointed as the Marseille coach. Will be interesting to see what he does there.

Best of luck to him. Do think that what we thought we'd get from AVB we finally have got under Poch, but at the same time that period was ultimately necessary to help clear out the disruptive elements on and off the pitch. With Tactics Tim languishing in obscurity and Baldini at Roma contributing to the alienation and departure of legends like Totti & De Rossi from the club it does throw into focus what AVB had to deal with behind closed doors. Glad we started fresh with Poch in so many departments.
 

tooey

60% banana
Apr 22, 2005
5,228
7,948
That was a brilliant 10 minutes spent on my coffee break. Pages 8 and 9 were the peak though, then it tailed off.
 

cjbyid

Well-Known Member
Jan 4, 2009
7,168
25,018
First season was okay. That lyon away game in the Europa was great.

Met him in Stansted airport after he was first appointed. Was more than happy to chat and take pics with fans no problem to him.

Wish him well!
 

Styopa

Well-Known Member
Jan 19, 2014
5,136
14,177
We finished 5th with him. The following summer he and Levy clearly fell out over transfer targets, and as such AVB downed tools. It didn't help that the odious rat that was Sherwood was doing his best to undermine and weasel his way in. That ended up with the "mutual consent" departure. The biggest disaster was that Sherwood took over.

We are very lucky that the likes of Hugo, Verts etc didn't leave us that summer.

Interestingly we finished on 1 point more in AVB's only full season season (72 points) than we finished on this season (71 points). In fact I think only twice in five seasons under Pochettino have we finished on more than 72 points. I know, I know, points total comparisons can be extremely misleading but it does help put things in context when words like 'disaster' are banded around. We missed out on 4th by 1 point and were only 3 points behind 3rd. We also finished on a higher points total under AVB than we had the previous 3 seasons under Redknapp.

All of that said, I disliked his period at the club. Generally I didn't find the football at all entertaining to watch. Redknapp had his detractors and a reputation for "go out there and run around" style tactics but more often than not the football was very entertaining to watch. Sure there was a fair amount of dross too but when we got going we really got going and Redknapp's teams gave us some of the most exciting football in modern Tottenham history. Alas the same cannot be said of AVB's teams. There were mitigating circumstances - losing Modric was huge and we probably let van der Vaart go too early. There were also some real high points - like beating Man U at OT and beating Arsenal at the Lane. However too often we looked as if we were playing with shackles on. After the free flowing football we had seen under Redknapp we looked rigid and inhibited. We were also very overreliant on Bale. His screamers from outside the box hid our deficiencies.

The second season of course could be termed a disaster in a sense. Again there were mitigating circumstances - the huge loss of Bale obviously and not getting the recruitment right. But even so home defeats of 1-0 to Newcastle, 3-0 to West Ham, and 5-0 to Liverpool plus a 6-0 defeat away to Man City all within the first 15 or so matches were really not acceptable even with the unbalanced squad we had put together. The relatively uninspiring football we had played in the first season was at least justifiable by the results we were getting but by the time we had gone down 5-0 at home to a side we had been regularly finishing above I saw no way back for him.
 

si_yidarmy

£NIC OUT
Apr 17, 2005
4,717
931
AVB Played his part in our history. Whether you look at it in a positive or negative way - he had his time, there were some fantastic memories for sure. Always loved his coats, could never find out where they were from. A nice guy.

I think Levy wanted us to try and copy Chelsea more at the time, it did not work. My Chelsea fan friends warned me of AVB that he spends more time analysing with iPads etc. than he does making the game work out. I think he was let down by a number of signings too, not sure if they were his choice.

Everyone will have different opinions and that is why this site is alive - we don't have to be horrible to each other. It happened and paved the way for Tim nice but dim and then our Magic Man, the path of life chose this for us and we are in a better place now. What was.... what is.... what's next.

COYS
 
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