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Last night, former Tottenham manager Andre Villas Boas decided to reveal some of the unsavory details about his tenure at Spurs on Portuguese TV. Well, today it would seem that his former employer decided to return the favor.
Ahead of their League Cup quarterfinal match against Newcastle, Tottenham briefed several reporters on what they saw as discrepancies in what AVB chose to make public. Simon Peach has the most compete accounting.
#THFC have accused Andre Villas-Boas of rewriting history after their former manager claimed the club reneged on promises.
— Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) December 17, 2014
In response to AVB's comments, a #THFC spokesperson told PA: "It's unfortunate that Andre has felt the need to pass comments like these..."
— Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) December 17, 2014
"Not only has he (Villas-Boas) attempted to rewrite history, he has clearly forgotten the facts," a #THFC spokesperson told me.
— Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) December 17, 2014
AVB's claim that Modric's move to Madrid came as a shock is understood to have irked #THFC, as has the way he portrayed Van der Vaart exit.
— Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) December 17, 2014
#AVB is believed to have been key in van der Vaart's departure, while #THFC deemed many of his targets as unrealistic.
— Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) December 17, 2014
Tom Collomosse from the Standard also added this juicy nugget.
I was told Villas-Boas always wanted to sell Van der Vaart.Pretty sure he did. Interesting he should cite him alongside Modric and Bale.
— Tom Collomosse (@TomCStandard) December 17, 2014
Most of this lines up with the things that made me suspicious about AVB's comments. Van der Vaart is on record as saying that AVB forced him out the door. While we absolutely sold him at the right time (when's the last time you heard about him doing anything good at Hamburg?), it was strange to see AVB group him with two players that we were actually under pressure to sell.
As far as the unrealistic targets, I'm not sure if the people AVB mentioned by name were completely unrealistic, but his lack of awareness regarding the difficulties of getting players targeted by clubs like Cheslea is a little strange. But then again, he didn't seem to realize that his comments might elicit exactly this kind of response from Spurs, who can't be happy to be talking about this, particularly on a game day.
If Spurs are willing to leak this right before a match, God only knows what we'll see later on, especially if AVB says anything else. As Bart Scott once said: Can't Wait.