Villas-Boas’ Coaching Staff at Tottenham

A week after his appointment, Andre Villas-Boas has finalised his coaching staff with the appointment of former Tottenham player, Sfeffen Freund as the Assistant Head Coach. Earlier in the week, Luis Martins became the First Team Coach while AVB had brought two of his coaches with him from Chelsea, Jose Mario Rocha as First Team Fitness Coach and Daniel Sousa as Head of Opposition Scouting. The only member of Harry Redknapp’s first team coaching staff to retain his position is Goalkeeping Coach, Tony Parks. It is also thought that Tim Sherwood and Les Ferdinand who worked with the Development squad will continue in some capacity but it is uncertain whether it will be in a similar role as previously or in a modified capacity. Ledley King is also expected to have a coaching position whenever he retires.

Andre Villas-Boas (Head Coach)

Villas Boas never played professional football but was interested in football and in 1973 at the age of sixteen he was invited by Sir Bobby Robson to work as a trainee with Porto’s youth team coaches. The following year he achieved the first of his coaching awards – the UEFA C coaching licence. He worked as a member of Porto’s observation department. In 2000, he managed the British Virgin Islands for two international matches, losing both. Two years later he became a member of Jose Mourinho’s backroom staff at Porto and in 2004 he moved to Chelsea with Mourinho to work as an opposition scout. He followed Mourinho to Inter Milan in 2008 but the following year he decided to branch out on his own in management.

In October, 2009 he was appointed manager of Academica who were bottom of the Portuguese League and without a win. By the end of the season, Villas-Boas had uided them to 11th place in the League and to a League Cup semi-final. This success attracted the interest of other clubs and during the summer he returned to Porto as Head Coach. His year at Porto was a tale of unremitting success as the club won four trophies – the Portuguese Super Cup, the League title with an undefeated record, the Uefa Cup and the Portuguese Cup.

Chelsea immediately paid over £13 million to release Villas-Boas from his Porto contract and appointed him as manager in June, 2011. The following March he was relieved of his duties as Chelsea’s season looked in grave danger of disintegrating under the young manager. Given the task of revitalising the aging Chelsea side, he faced strong opposition from senior players and results suffered. At the time of his departure Chelsea were fifth in the Premier League and had qualified for the knock-out stages of the Champions League. On announcing Villas-Boas’ departure the Chelsea website included the following comment, “The board would like to record our gratitude for his work and express our disappointment that the relationship has ended so early.”

Four months on, Villas-Boas was appointed as Head Coach at Tottenham as the replacement for Harry Redknapp. He speaks fluent English and impressed at his first Tottenham press conference at the club’s new training complex at Bull Cross, Enfield. He has assembled his coaching staff and he has outlined his vision for the future of Tottenham Hotspur.

"“We go into four competitions next season and we go into them with the maximum ambition of trying to win them……. our commitment towards winning titles, creates the right winning mentality towards the future to take the club forward.”"

Steffen Freund (Assistant Head Coach)

Steffen Freund played for Tottenham under George Graham – he was a hard-working, fully committed midfield player who made over 100 appearances for Spurs, without scoring a goal. He was Graham’sfirst signing, joining from Borussia Dortmond where he had  won the Bundesliga, twice, and the Champions League. He helped Spurs win the Worthington Cup in 1999 and on leaving in 2003 he went briefly to Kaiserslauten and Leicester City. He made 21 International appearances for Germany and on retirement he was appointed assistant coach to the German Under-20 team. He has also managed the German Under-16 team taking them to Under-17 level and runners-up place in 2011 in the European Championships and third in the World Cup. He worked as assistant to Berti Vogts who managed Nigeria in the 2008 African Cup of Nations.

Freund’s first match as Tottenham Assistant Head Coach will take him to Stevenage where he scored his only Spurs goal in a friendly against the old Stevenage Borough club in a 8 – 1 win in 2001.

A ‘cult’ hero at Spurs, Freund was surprisingly inducted into the Tottenham Hotspur Hall of Fame in 2009. On returning to White Hart Lane he is sure to bring the same level of commitment to the coaching staff as he showed in his playing career.

Luis Martins (First Team Coach)

Luis Martins’ area of expertise is coaching younger players and having worked in Portugal with Sporting Lisbon from 2004 he has overseen the development of players like Christiano Ronaldo, Nani and Joao Moutinho.  In season 2004-05 he was Assistant Coach to the Sporting first team when they reached the Final of the UEFA Cup. In 2008 he was Head of Youth Development at SC Braga.

He has worked in Saudi Arabia for the past two seasons. Last year he was the coach of the Al Ahli’s Under -23 side and the previous year he coached the Saudi Arabian national and Olympic teams.

Jose Mario Rocha (First Team Fitness Coach)

Jose Mario Rocha has worked alongside Villas-Boas since 2009 when AVB was appointed manager of Academica in Portugal and he invited Rocha to be his Assistant Manager. Rocha then followed him to Porto and Chelsea where he was the Fitness Coach. He  left Stamford Bridge with Villas-Boas last March but they were re-united at Tottenham at the beginning of July. Rocha is 49 tears of age, was born in Portugal and attended Porto University. He has worked as a coach since the early 1990s working with various age groups at Porto where he first met Andre Villas-Boas.

Daniel Sousa (Head of Opposition Coaching)

Daniel Sousa first met Andre Villas-Boas two weeks into his new post as Head of Opposition Scouting at Academica when AVB was appointed manager in October, 2009. He became a vital member of AVB’s technical team and joined him at he moved to Porto, Chelsea and now, Tottenham. Prior to working at Academica, Sousa had coached youth players at Porto and other clubs in the city. A knee injury meant that Sousa gave up playing at a young age and went to Porto University to study Sports Science, opting to specialise in football.

Sousa was born near Braga in Portugal and is 27 years of age. His role is vital to Villas-Boas’ meticulous attention to detail approach to preparation for matches, preparing dossiers with detailed information on opponents.

Tony Parks (Goalkeeping Coach)

Tony Parks has been the goalkeeping coach at Tottenham since November, 2008. Prior to that he had worked as a goalkeeping coach with several clubs and as one of the Football Association’s national coaches, working with the England youth teams. In his playing days he became an instant hero at Tottenham at the age of twenty one when he saved two penalties in the UEFA Cup Final penalty shoot-out as Spurs defeated Anderlecht. Having come through the youth system, Parks made only 37 appearances for Spurs before leaving in 1988. During a playing career of twenty years he was on the books of fifteen different League clubs and had two periods as manager of Halifax Town. Parks is the only member of Harry Redknapp’s first team coaching staff to survive the changes at the club.

Three other former Tottenham players are expected to have positions on the backroom staff but at a lower level. Tim Sherwood who was being tipped to move up to a Director of Football role appears to be remaining in charge of the Development Squad with Les Ferdinand as one of his coaches. Ledley King is also expected to become a coach at youth level as it is thought that he will soon announce his retirement from playing due to his continuing injury problems.

Andre Villas-Boas’ coaching staff has extensive experience in youth football and working with top class young players but it is inexperienced at Premier League level. They are sure to bring new ideas to the training ground and the big test for them will be to apply and adapt their methods to prepare a team for the Premier League. The younger coaches should certainly be able to identify and understand the needs and expectations of modern players so it will be interesting to see how this works out in practice. Should someone with Premier League knowledge have been brought on to the coaching staff to support Andre Villas-Boas to provide him with the benefit of his experience?