Kyle Walker has revealed that multiple Tottenham players cried when Andre Villas-Boas was sacked by chairman Daniel Levy.
Speaking on his You’ll Never Beat Kyle Walker podcast, Walker detailed the gut-punch of emotion when the popular Villas-Boas told the squad he was being forced to leave.
“I’ve got tears running down my eyes… Michael Dawson is welling up,” said Walker. “That’s how much he meant to the lads.”
Villas-Boas enjoyed a good first season at White Hart Lane during 2012/13, taking Spurs to the brink of the Champions League with a squad that included an emergent Gareth Bale. However, the North London side missed out on qualification for Europe’s elite competition by one point and Bale was sold to Real Madrid for £85.3 million.
This fee–which was a world record at the time–was invested badly and AVB soon found himself under pressure. Spurs replaced an icon with Christian Eriksen, Paulinho, Roberto Soldado, Nacer Chadli, Etienne Capoue, Erik Lamela and Vlad Chiriches. Eriksen was the only massive success, and before too long, Villas-Boas paid the price.
“Bale was a massive, massive loss,” said Walker. “They signed seven players off the back of the Bale money. There’s a lot of changes there and we just never really gelled in time for him [Villas-Boas] to then do well.”
Walker admits the team “didn’t do him justice,” but that Villas-Boas made a major impression, saying “for 10 or 12 men to be crying because the manager’s gone, he’s done something well in the dressing room”.
Villas-Boas took over at Zenit Saint Petersburg shortly after leaving the Premier League, progressing on to manage Shanghai SIPG and most recently Marseille in Ligue 1. The 46-year-old is now the president of Porto, the club where he captured a treble that included the Europa League before he moved to England with Chelsea in 2011.
Walker joined Manchester City in 2017, where he built on his reputation to establish himself as one of the world’s best right-backs. Famed for his pace and difficulty to beat in one-on-ones, he’s enjoyed an era of success at the most dominant club in the country, including a treble of his own.
