Andre Villas-Boas Opens Up on Ashley Cole, Chelsea and Tim Sherwood

In a tell-all recount of his experiences in the Premier League, Andre Villas-Boas has opened up on his unsavoury time at Chelsea's helm, as well as criticised Tottenham Hotspur successor Tim Sherwood.

The tactician—now at Zenit St. Petersburg—was in charge at Stamford Bridge for nine months before being shown the exit door. Portuguese newspaper Expresso (h/t Daily Star's Rhys Turrell) quotes Villas-Boas blaming a divide in the dressing room as a contributing factor to his west London departure:

"

Yes, and it was even public. Ashley Cole even admitted it and, although it's good that he's come out with it now, it was unacceptable at the time. 

I made plenty of mistakes in England and maybe I was too aggressive with the press. I wanted to defend my players and the club and, at the end, I looked around me and saw that I didn't have anyone else with me. I was treated badly all the way through.

"

Villas-Boas won just 19 of his 40 games in charge of Chelsea, where it was feared his lack of top-flight experience (and age) may be a factor in his failure to command senior stars in the squad.

At the time of his appointment, Villas-Boas was only 33 years of age. After signing for Roma this past summer, Cole told Sky Sport Italia (h/t ESPN FC's Ben Gladwell) that some in the Blues squad didn't respect their young boss:

"There were some players who didn't want to work hard for Villas-Boas. But as soon as [Roberto] Di Matteo arrived, that all changed."

The strategist moved to the Premier League after just one year with Porto, albeit an extremely successful maiden campaign with the club, in which he won a treble comprised of the Europa League, Primeira Liga and Portuguese Cup.

Moving from the Estadio do Dragao to the demands and pressures of Stamford Bridge would be considered a remarkable task by any manager's standards and eventually proved to be the undoing of Villas-Boas.

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His next chance came at White Hart Lane, a similarly unsuccessful venture which ended with Sherwood replacing Villas-Boas after his second sacking in the space of two seasons.

Villas-Boas left Spurs with the highest win percentage of any manager in the club's Premier League history (54 per cent)—which Sherwood surpassed during his reign (59 per cent).

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Per the Daily Mail's Jack Briden, the 37-year-old criticised his successor at Spurs, citing a divide between the coaches and playing staff as a main contributor to Sherwood's downfall:

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Tim was not part of my team, but I already alerted the president that he was detrimental to the club. [Sherwood] continued after I left and his leadership resulted in a extreme split between the players and the coach.

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Sherwood spent just six months in charge of Tottenham and was handed his marching orders at the conclusion of the 2014-15 campaign.

Now, the former Spurs midfielder is being linked with a return to management, with The Sunday Times reporting Crystal Palace to be a likely destination:

Villas-Boas, meanwhile, has come upon new success at the helm of Zenit and may count his Premier League experiences as character-building, though admittedly a trial by fire for one so young.

Chelsea and Tottenham proved to be difficult outfits to work with so early in his managerial career, but the surging tactician is rebuilding his renown in Russia and may one day be more prepared for a return to England.