Congratulations Andre Villas-Boas. Just moments after the ‘achievement’ of qualifying from the Europa League stages, knocking out the European giants of NK Maribor, and Panathinaikos, our former manager couldn’t resist talking about us in his post-match interview.
It is the fact that we have been awarded a Europa League spot that seems to have ruffled his feathers, as he piped up saying “I think its extremely unfair” whilst sounding awfully like a disgruntled private school kid who had been told he couldn’t stay up to watch Match of the Day.
No doubt he would’ve had the same views had he been left in charge at the Bridge, when we would’ve undoubtedly crashed out in third place had Roman not intervened.
Still, he did say he thought that fate may well pair us together in the knockout stages, the round after next that is, as teams from the same country can’t be drawn together in the first round of knockout fixtures. Maybe that is why AVB wasn’t a fan of letting us into the competition, as he didn’t want a repeat of the 4-2 demolition we executed on them in the league.
He couldn’t resist a knock at his successor Roberto Di Matteo, saying that ‘you can’t give a bonus to teams who have failed’ before suggesting that teams knocked out of the last 16 of the Champions League should get the places instead. Erm, have they not failed as well Andre?
Not much thought seems to have gone into that planning in fairness, as the last 16 of the Champions League is played in the two days before the Europa League games, unless he wants a complete overhaul of the system, a pretty drastic measure to avoid us being paired together. Don’t worry Andre, we’ll give you a chance, we’ll let Torres start.
Still, I don’t think many of us would mind a nice derby in the latter stages of the Europa League, if not just to take AVB down a peg or two, as he seems to have got a bit too big for his boots after a couple of decent results.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint Andre.
By Brad Smith
Follow @BrummieBrad