Exclusive – John Scales: Andre Villas-Boas has emphatically proved his critics wrong

John Scales has hailed Andre Villas-Boas’ turnaround from Chelsea failure to Tottenham in hero over the last 12 months.

The Portuguese manager was sacked by Roman Abramovich at Stamford Bridge in February 2012 after a poor run of form left the Blues fifth in the Premier League.

But he jumped back into the managerial hot seat with Spurs last summer, despite many feeling it would be too soon for the young boss who had had such a demoralising experience at Chelsea.

The 35-year-old, though, has taken Tottenham up to third in the Premier League and into the quarter-finals of the Europa League.

And Scales, a former Spurs defender, has been impressed by Villas-Boas’ impact at White Hart Lane.

He told the Weekend Sports Breakfast: “It’s been over a year since he left Chelsea and I had reservations, I’ve got to be honest, when I saw his name linked with Spurs in the summer.

“But he’s done an incredible job and I think he has answered just about every critic in emphatic form. I like the way that he’s gone about it too.

“The players have embraced his philosophy which is great credit to the players as well because I’m sure a lot of them would have spoken to their mates at Chelsea and thought, ‘what are we letting ourselves in for here’, but he’s communication 100 times better than he did at Chelsea.”