Andre Villas-Boas has uncovered the extent of the transfer mayhem that took hold of Chelsea during his brief stint at the club.
The Blues hired the Portuguese coach in the summer of 2011 as he emerged as one of Europe’s top talents in the dugout - yet he lasted less than a year at Stamford Bridge.
Part of the issues Villas-Boas faced was the club’s inability to see through major deals with Luka Modric and Joao Moutinho two top targets who slipped their grasp.
“We missed the Modric deal at the beginning of the season,” he told the Telegraph.
“If the Modric deal was not to be done there was the Moutinho deal to be done. That was the promise of Roman [Abramovich] at that time.
“Moutinho joined the Premier League years and years after I tried – proposing to both Chelsea and Tottenham – and everybody has seen the player that he is. So that denial of him was a failure that you can’t [blame on] a coach.
“I thought that we had the Modric deal done and he ended up in Real Madrid the season after. Then the Moutinho deal was to be done with Porto but the problem was [Chelsea’s] deal for the left-back of Porto, Alvaro Pereira, fell through. Romanfelt p***** off.”
Modric’s career went from strength to strength after he left Tottenham for Madrid in 2012, where he won the Ballon d’Or and five Champions League titles, while now-Wolves man Moutinho lifted the Euro 2016 trophy with Portugal.
Carlos Tevez and Radamel Falcao were other players considered as Villas-Boas discussed the early years of Marina Granovskaia’s time at the helm of Chelsea transfers.
“So, no Modric, no Moutinho,” he continued. “Falcao is another one that was about to come in but then you had [Didier] Drogba who couldn’t decide whether he wanted to leave or not in January. He was about to go to Shanghai, then he isn’t any more and then Marina she wanted Carlos Tevez and suddenly she doesn’t want Tevez any more.
“So, you know, managements and mismanagements that are typical within that organisation. But Marina evolved to one of the greatest CEOs at that time [at Chelsea]. I am nothing compared to what she has achieved.
“There are a lot of things about that season that deserve one of those shocking autobiographies in England that reaches number one in WH Smith!”
