Don’t call me the new special one – Villas-Boas

Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas was quick to dismiss comparisons with Jose Mourinho as he used his official introduction at Stamford Bridge to insist he is not the new ‘Special One’.

Villas-Boas worked for Mourinho as an opposition scout during his fellow Portuguese’s time in charge at Porto, Chelsea and Inter and has spent much of his brief managerial career following in the footsteps of the controversial coach.

The 33-year-old managed Porto last season and has now taken charge of the Premier League club where Mourinho enjoyed three years of unprecedented success before an acrimonious exit in 2007.

Inevitably that has led Villas-Boas to be dubbed ‘the mini-Mourinho’, but his style is far more diplomatic than the brash Mourinho and he refused to emulate his predecessor’s self-aggrandising arrival at Chelsea.

While Mourinho used his first press conference as Chelsea manager in 2004 to describe himself as “a special one”, Villas-Boas prefers to work as part of a collective and suggested that if he had to have a label it should be “the group one”.

“This is not a one-man show, it is a question of creating empathy and raising ambitions in the players and staff around me,” Villas-Boas said yesterday.

“I’m just one gear in this big club that wants to be successful every year. The challenge at Chelsea is to win as soon as possible and build a solid platform for the future.

“Maybe I should be called ‘the group one’, I want to group people together to be successful.

“My title, I will wait for you guys to give it to me when I am successful... I hope to get a good one.”

Despite spending several years working with Mourinho, the pair are no longer on speaking terms after Villas-Boas angered his former boss by quitting his backroom role at Inter to become a boss in his own right at Portuguese minnows Academica de Coimbra in 2009.

Even so, Villas-Boas had no hesitation in describing Mourinho’s time at Chelsea as the standard he has to live up to.

“It is normal that he is mentioned as part of the history of this club, the trophies you see here have been won by him,” Villas-Boas, who will have Roberto di Matteo as assistant coach, said.

“It is almost as if he is part of this press conference sitting next to me!

“Of course, you know we don’t speak for a long time but there are no hard feelings... just two busy people in football.”