Before his first spell in charge at Academica he was a protege to Jose Mourinho, who is renowned worldwide as one of the best coaches in the sport. Villas Boas' role was to scout the opposition during Mourinho's tenures at Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan respectively. Mourinho often mentioned how in-depth his colleague's reports were as he trawled through pages of facts and figures.
At just 33, Villas Boas is of the same tender age as his players Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard. He decided from an early age that he wanted to be a coach and took several risks during his teenage years by travelling to Glasgow to earn his UEFA coaching badges before taking charge of the British Virgin Islands in two international matches in 2000. Both ended in defeat.
This attracted the attention of Porto who saw many similarities with him and Mourinho, but even the most optimistic could not have foreseen the amazing transformation of the club with Villas Boas at the helm.
Benfica had won the previous year's league title and appeared to be in a promising position to do so again, despite the departure of the influential Angel Di Maria. But having amassed an astonishing 84 points from just 30 games without tasting defeat, the title was reclaimed at the Estadio do Dragao. Porto also added the Portuguese Cup and Europa League titles with wins over Vitoria de Guimaraes and Braga respectively to complete a remarkable season for the 'rookie' manager.
More inevitable comparisons with Mourinho were made - he won a treble in his first full season as Porto manager - and links with Chelsea began to appear. Despite the perhaps anticipated arrival of Guus Hiddink, it appears that Abramovich has gone for someone who could bring a touch of 'je ne sais quoi' to the three-times champions, proven by the £13.3m compensation package paid by the Russian to bring him to the club.
Mourinho and Villas Boas will naturally be compared but their footballing philosophies are slightly different. The former prefers a clinical, counter-attacking brand of the game but focuses heavily on the importance of defending. The latter however, emphasises much more on the use of possession and using his wingers more prominently in a much more attack-minded style. Chelsea fans can expect to maintain the same 4-3-3 formation which they have used frequently since Mourinho's reign, as Villas Boas deployed Hulk and Cristian Rodriguez alongisde the much-coveted Falcao in his system last season. Porto's record this season of 73 scored and 16 conceded proves that his side were efficient at both ends of the field, which will be welcome news to Abramovich. Despite always being successful under his ownership, the side have never played the same brand of football that is perhaps more associated to Arsenal and Manchester United. He wishes to find a manager who shares his vision for the club. Villas Boas was recently quoted as saying how he admires the Barcelona philosophy and how he apologised for winning the Europa League final with a 'scrappy game', which can only bode well with the players and supporters at Stamford Bridge alike.
I personally feel he is the perfect choice for the west-Londoners as they seek to win back the Premier League title and the thus-far elusive Champions League crown. He's young, hungry for success and wants to play football how it should be played. He's a modest fella too...
