Andre-Villas Boas has detailed the falling out with Daniel Levy that led to his Tottenham exit in 2013.
During an interview with The Athletic, AVB spoke highly of his experience at Spurs, which included a fifth-place finish in his first season, a year in which Gareth Bale scored 21 Premier League goals.
Unfortunately for AVB, Bale left for Real Madrid in the summer and the beginning of his second season was a disaster, culminating in a 5-0 home defeat to Liverpool and his sacking in December.
AVB has now revealed he fell out with Levy during those final few months – but their disagreement did not concern Bale or how the money raised by the Welshman’s sale was spent.
Instead, AVB claims Levy wanted the Portuguese coach to leave for Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2013, to the extent that the chairman was negotiating a fee with the Parisians.
AVB declined to leave and asked for a contract extension, something he believed he was entitled to after turning down PSG – but Levy disagreed.
On the matter, AVB told The Athletic: “I understood Tottenham wanted me to go to Paris. I had an offer from Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the (2012-13) season.
“But I said, ‘No’. My clause for leaving Tottenham, which Levy was negotiating with Paris, was £15 million. Chelsea had paid €15 million for me and in Tottenham it was £15 million. And Levy was of course negotiating this.
“So I didn’t have the best of relationships with Daniel. We were correct throughout but we were not in love with each other and I think they wanted me to accept the offer. But I wanted to stay. I had a great time in London. The team was good. I didn’t feel at that time that Paris was what I wanted for my career so I decided to risk on that one more year and for me I take things a lot personally. I have a different vision of football and, for me, whenever somebody declines something that’s normally better – be it contract-wise or the possibility of you winning – for me, you are entitled to a contract renewal. That’s how I see things. It wasn’t the case. And that led to a bad, bad animosity between us. To the point where it was December and there were no conditions for us to continue working and we reached an agreement to leave.”
It’s a shame things didn’t quite work out for AVB, but his departure eventually led to the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino, whose possible return is still being talked up (via the Sun).
