Will AVB ever get lauded like Laudrup?
Michael Laudrup is the best former footballer managing in the league; a superstar who played for Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus. Andre Villas-Boas was... very good at Championship Manager.
The game has become more corporatised and technical but Villas-Boas is still a kind of interloper in Laudrup’s world. Management continues to be dominated by former players. It helps to have been a good former player: seven of the 20 Premier League managers played international football. Only three of the 20 did not have a professional playing career, and of those three, Rafael Benitez and Brendan Rodgers could argue that they would have done but for the serious knee injuries that finished their careers before they could get started.