Soccer:Andre Villas-Boas refused to repeat the hyperbole of mentor Jose Mourinho as he branded himself "the group one" during his first press conference as Chelsea boss this morning.
Mourinho famously dubbed himself as the ‘special one’ when he was introduced to the media for the first time as Blues boss, but Villas-Boas, who worked under his Portuguese compatriot at Stamford Bridge, opted for a different approach.
When asked what title he would like the media to give him, he replied: “The title... I will wait for you guys to give it me when I am successful. I hope I am and you can give me a good title. This is not a one-man show, this is about creating empathy, ambition and motivation in everybody.
“Maybe I should be called the group one as I want to group people together and be successful.”
The 33-year-old also side-stepped questions about how he may look to take on established Premier League managers such as Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson.
“It’s not just a question of me taking on Sir Alex, it’s a top club like Chelsea challenging for the title,” he said. “We need to be up there from the beginning and it is not one man against the other, it’s about trying to build something that can make us powerful, and help us threaten for the title as we have in the past.”
The former Porto boss also confirmed ex-West Brom boss and Chelsea midfielder Roberto Di Matteo as his assistant, praising the Italian’s commitment to playing attractive football.
He said:
“If you see the technical staff in front of me, and my appointment of Roberto, these are people who like the quality of the game and have a philosophy. It’s not just a case of winning it’s a case of flair.
“Everyone likes attacking football and the Premier League has a certain amount of goals in every game and it should be an entertaining game for the fans and that is what we will look to do.”
Villas-Boas also spoke of how tough a decision it was for him to leave Porto after securing four trophies in his first season in charge, and revealed that they had been prepared to match Chelsea’s financial offer in an effort to keep him.
“It was a difficult separation and there are a lot of Portuguese press in this room who know the extent of my move and the impact it had. It was felt very hard in Portugal but my commitment to them was 100 per cent. Porto is my club and always will be, I felt good there and we had a successful year.
“It was difficult but everybody in this room will have felt the need for a new challenge and I felt it. We had a crazy year of success but I felt that I could challenge myself (more at Chelsea).
“It was a lucrative move and I can assure you Porto were able to beat their offer. They were to make an offer for me to stay but I took the (Chelsea) offer, against the will of my family.”