Andre Villas-Boas’ time at Chelsea will go down as a failure, a season which the Blues would go on to win the Champions League in Munich.
The 2011/12 campaign will be remembered for the rest of the club’s history after the famous night at the Allianz Arena to win their first ever Champions League, however it was a season that wasn’t plain sailing.
Roman Abramovich made the decision to appoint Villas-Boas in the summer of 2011 as Chelsea’s new manager. Their statement of intent was shown by the £13.3 million they paid to release him from his Porto contract.
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But after less than nine months in charge, the now former Chelsea owner made the ruthless decision to relieve the Portuguese from his duties at Stamford Bridge. A 1-0 defeat to West Brom ended his 257-day reign at the club.
The 34-year-old was replaced by Roberto Di Matteo, who became the interim until the end of the season, and guided the club to an against-all-odds triumph against Bayern Munich in their own backyard in May to win the Champions League.
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"Unfortunately the results and performances of the team have not been good enough and were showing no signs of improving at a key time in the season,” a club statement read.
"The club is still competing in the latter stages of the UEFA Champions League and the FA Cup, as well as challenging for a top-four spot in the Premier League, and we aim to remain as competitive as possible on all fronts.
"With that in mind, we felt our only option was to make a change at this time."
Villas-Boas was full of pedigree. He became the youngest coach to win the Europa League - that was in 2011 - as well as winning the Portuguese Primeira Liga and cup.
But his time at Chelsea didn’t work out, nor did his time at Tottenham Hotspur later on when he made the switch to the Blues’ London rivals.
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Speaking to The Telegraph, Villas-Boas admitted: “Chelsea was something that happens to a lot of people who have been through there.
“Sometimes you get lucky, you win a trophy and at least you leave a mark. I wasn’t that lucky.”
Villas-Boas reflected on his mistakes at Stamford Bridge, adding: “We thought that we wouldn’t need as many changes as we predicted when we planned to start, OK? So that was a managerial mistake.”
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He went on to say that he was not paid a heavy compensation fee after being released from his job less than a year after making the move to England.
"You know, let me tell you something. People write about me in England about release clauses and payments - I see ‘the payments done for AVB’.
"I had an agreement with Chelsea to be paid monthly and I got a job in June. So Chelsea paid me four months of my salary. I never got £10 million or £15 million compensation. That is all b---s--t that has been written."
Topics: Chelsea
Matthew Debono