sport news Andre Villas-Boas uncovers the issues at Chelsea and his mistakes which left ... trends now

Andre Villas-Boas has opened up on his short-lived tenure as Chelsea manager and revealed several issues that led to his dismissal.

The Portuguese coach was headhunted by Chelsea in the summer of 2011, having guided Porto to a treble the previous season.

This included a Europa League triumph with the then-33-year-old becoming the youngest manager to ever win a European competition and at the time he was viewed as one of the most promising young coaches in the world.

Chelsea paid a staggering £13.3million to secure his services with Villas-Boas returning to the club where he previously spent time as a scout while Jose Mourinho was in the Stamford Bridge dugout.

However, he struggled with the Blues, as he failed to coax performances out of a star-studded but ageing squad.

He was dismissed in March 2012, following a dismal 1-0 defeat to West Brom which left Chelsea in fifth, hanging on to their hopes of securing a Champions League place for the following season.

However, after Villas-Boas' departure, Chelsea went onto remarkably win the Champions League, defeating Bayern Munich in the final on penalties under caretaker manager Roberto Di Matteo. 

And, reflecting on the end of his tenure more than 10 years on, Villas-Boas admitted he made mistakes while at Stamford Bridge.

'Chelsea was something that happens to a lot of people who have been through there,' Villas-Boas told The Telegraph. 'Sometimes you get lucky, you win a trophy and at least you leave a mark. I wasn’t that lucky.

'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.'

However, the Portuguese coach pointed to issues being out of his control that led to his struggles, including failed transfer activity at the club.

He said: 'Of course, we missed the (Luka) Modric deal at the beginning of the season.