Spurs boss reveals reasons for split with Mourinho at Inter Milan

By Ben Pearce, Tottenham correspondent Wednesday, March 6, 2013
3:13 PM

Andre Villas-Boas says it will be an “emotional experience” for him to face his former club Inter Milan – and he has revealed the reasons for his split with Jose Mourinho.

Villas-Boas was a member of Mourinho’s staff at FC Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan, and the pair worked together at the San Siro between 2008 and 2009, during a time when the Nerazzurri won the Serie A title.

However, Villas-Boas outgrew his role as an opposition scout, and his ambitions to become a manager in his own right led to his departure for the Portuguese outfit Academica.

Now his Tottenham side are about to host Inter Milan at White Hart Lane, and Villas-Boas says the reunion will be a special one.

“For me, playing against Inter is a pretty emotional experience,” he said. “I spent time at the club, I was made extremely welcome by the people I met there.

“I still speak to some people there, even two or three times a week. It means a lot to me, I have very good memories. I spent 18 months there and I was well looked after. They allowed me to leave the time came for me to leave.

“It was a difficult moment of my professional life. At that time I was scouting for Jose. We had conversations because I wanted to be a little bit more involved with the first-team training.

“Jose had always seen me doing the job that I was doing for him throughout his career and basically we had a chat - our contract together at Inter Milan would be the last one because after that I would be following on.

“The first proposal from a club came later that year. I studied it but it didn’t go through in the end. It came a bit later, a year after with Academica, and things were very smooth after that.

“It was a difficult step to go, bearing in mind all the things I had access to at Inter Milan - the knowledge and experience with Jose. But the possibility of beginning my career was something that I wanted very much, and that’s why I decided to take the risk and left. Reflecting, at that time it was probably the right decision but it was very difficult, at the time, to take it.

“I’m not sure how much my knowledge of Inter can influence the game. I don’t know all the players. There have been a lot of changes there, only a few of the old guard who there when Jose and I were there are still around at Inter. They’re learning to play a different play and adapt to a different style, so they’re a different team basically.”

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