Villas-Boas names Premier League icon Tottenham bosses blocked him from signing

15 November 2023 , 19:20

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Former Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas (Image: Getty Images)

Former Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas has revealed he had "massive arguments" with club chiefs over Joao Moutinho.

Villas-Boas spent 18 months in charge of Spurs, replacing Harry Redknapp in July 2012 just four months after being sacked by Chelsea. One of the first major challenges he faced was the impending departure of star midfielder Luka Modric, who left to join Real Madrid a month later, and Villas-Boas wanted to sign Moutinho as his replacement.

At the time, Moutinho was still playing for Porto where he was part of a side that went unbeaten in the league and won the Europa League and Portuguese Cup under Villas-Boas in 2011.

Moutinho had also impressed for Portugal at Euro 2012, with Manchester United among the other clubs said to be interested in signing him. However, Tottenham chiefs were not as convinced by Moutinho as Villas-Boas, causing a major problem at the start of his reign.

"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.

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"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.

Villas-Boas wanted to sign Joao Moutinho in 2012, but was overruled in favour of Mousa Dembele (Vincent Van Doornick - Isosport)

"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."

Moutinho ended up staying at Porto for another season before joining Monaco in 2013. He spent four seasons at the Ligue 1 outfit before eventually getting a move to the Premier League when he signed for Wolves in 2018.

The 37-year-old made a total of 212 appearances for Wolves across five seasons, forming an impressive midfield partnership with Ruben Neves and notably helping them reach the Europa League quarter-finals in 2020 and back-to-back seventh-placed finishes in the Premier League.

Matthew Cooper