André Villas-Boas will have lived the Marseille adventure for a year and a half before submitting his resignation. The “emotional” Portuguese coach, as he describes himself, revealed the underside of his departure while dwelling for L’Équipe on what made him spiral at Olympique de Marseille.
L’Marseille Olympic has known many coaches since the start of the Champions Project with the takeover of the club by the American businessman Frank McCourt. Andre Villas–Boas succeeded to Rudi Garciabut only stayed for one and a half seasons. The cause? A broken pact between the leaders of theABOUT and the Portuguese coach from his point of view.
“That’s why I submitted my resignation”
Pour The Team, Andre Villas–Boas reversed his decision to leave OM at the end of the 2021 winter transfer window. “Everyone knows that when Pablo (Longoria) arrived, I decided to stay. Because I obviously loved the club. I had linked my future to “Zubi” (Andoni Zubizarreta, sporting director), Zubi left (in May 2020) and I had a very strong discussion with Franck (McCourt, the club owner). One of the things that we had made sacred between us was that the decision to take a player had to be validated by all parties. I was not informed of the arrival and I had already said no for this player (Olivier Ntcham). That’s why I submitted my resignation.”
“When people cross the line, when we touch values, I can freak out”
Relaunched by The Team about his somewhat volcanic temperament, Andre Villas–Boas denied this preconceived idea. “My character? Volcanic, no. Emotional, yes.” However, he did not fail to recognize his ability to drop a few punchlines out of nowhere and to lose patience when his values are not respected. “The other day, I laughed a lot when I looked back at some press conferences I had given. I gave you some good moments, some good punchlines (laughs). What if I lost control? No, no, not at all. Normally, I am always in control of my emotions. But when people cross the line, when we touch on values, I can lose my temper, as you say in French. Yes, it’s true that it happened once or twice in Marseille.”
