Andre Villas-Boas reveals ‘massive Tottenham arguments’ over player he wanted to sign instead of Mousa Dembele
Andre Villas-Boas and Mousa Dembele at Tottenham in 2013
Former Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas has revealed he had “massive arguments” with club over the player he wanted to replace the departing Luka Modric.
Villas-Boas had an unsuccessful 18-month spell in charge of Spurs after replacing Harry Redknapp in July 2012 – just four months after he had been axed by London rivals Chelsea.
One of the first things he was tasked with was bringing in a replacement for Real Madrid-bound Modric, and things did not go quite as planned for Villas-Boas.
Indeed, while the Portuguese chief wanted his compatriot Joao Moutinho to join him in north London, Tottenham eventually ended up signing the hugely popular Mousa Dembele instead.
At that time, Moutinho was playing for a Porto side that had gone unbeaten throughout a whole league season and had also won the Europa League and Portuguese Cup under Villas-Boas in 2011.
Moutinho had also excelled for Portugal at Euro 2012 and had become a major target for Manchester United.
However, despite Villas-Boas pushing strongly for a deal, Tottenham chiefs were not as convinced by Moutinho as their new manager – getting off to a frosty start as a result.
“I wanted to sign Joao Moutinho and he was sitting sixth on the list compiled by data people,” Villas-Boas said at Web Summit in Lisbon. “The first on the list was [Moussa] Dembele and we ended up signing him.
“It drained me emotionally to the point where, here was a guy that the data was not showing all that he represented from the coach’s perspective, which is a player that knows your leadership, a player that knows your style, adaptability to your style.
“This can be quantified, but it must be done in the view of a coach and not a single view. This was the problem in the beginning and we had massive, massive arguments in the beginning because of this with Moutinho.
“We signed Dembele but missed out on Moutinho and it was unfortunate because we were going to build up a very strong midfield. This is precisely where you have to have that balance to understand, what is your coaching philosophy and how it should be integrated into the data that has been provided to you.”
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Moutinho ends up being huge success at Wolves
Moutinho eventually ended up at Monaco in 2013 and had a spell at the French side before joining Wolves in 2018.
The now 37-year-old made 212 appearances for the Molineux outfit in his five seasons there, forming a strong midfield partnership with Ruben Neves.
He is now playing back in his homeland for Braga, while Dembele went on to become a huge fan favourite in north London.
The Belgian made 250 appearances for Tottenham but was often criticised for his lack of end product, despite dominating games with his strength and skill. Indeed, he notched only 10 goals in those games and left for the Chinese Super League in January 2019.
Meanwhile, the current Tottenham side will be looking to bounce back from back-to-back Premier League defeats when they host Aston Villa in the Premier League after the international break.