AS.com

"Mourinho is perhaps the best coach of all time", said Andre Villas-Boas, boss of Tottenham Hotspur, in an interview given to the Brazilian paper Lancenet. According to him, working for seven years with the Real Madrid coach "was a unique experience. It's difficult to find someone with so much professionalism, dedication and knowledge of the game."

"Luckily, he saw in me a good professional in the studying of matches and of opponents. It was a privilege to work with him and learn his training methods", added Villas-Boas.

The man in charge of Tottenham said he wasn't bothered by the comparisons: "They're made by people outside the game. We're not concerned with seeming like anybody or working with anybody. We might have ways of leading which people could think are similar, but it's not imitation. I'm not worried about that."

Villas-Boas also acknowledged that he was influenced by Bobby Robson, the man that brought Mourinho to Barcelona from Porto: "He lived in my building and I was a Porto fan. So I started to talk to him about the players and he told me, very friendlily, that he's let me come to the training sessions. That's when my passion for the game and the tactics started. He was crucial in my choice of vocation. I started to do a course and train the youngest. Those are times I remember very fondly."