Andre Villas-Boas, reflecting on Tottenham Hotspur’s perilous position in the Premier League, attributes the club’s struggles to a series of conflicting strategies over the past eight years.

Villas-Boas, who managed Spurs 13 years ago, recalls a time when they were consistently vying for a Champions League spot. During his tenure, he even set a club record for points accrued in a season. However, since his exit in December 2013, the club has undergone a whirlwind of managerial changes. Roberto De Zerbi marks the ninth permanent appointment since Villas-Boas left.

While taken aback by Tottenham’s decline, Villas-Boas acknowledges that the accumulation of misguided decisions has ultimately led to their current predicament.

“The pressure is incomparable,” Villas-Boas remarked. “There are clubs and players with the experience to navigate these challenges successfully. But for teams like Tottenham, it can be a struggle. It’s truly difficult to witness.”

Chopping and changing in the dugout is the root cause of Tottenham Hotspur’s relegation woe

‘There are clubs and players that have experience in being in those places that can save themselves all the time.

‘But there are other ones like Tottenham which can find it difficult. It’s really, really hard to see.’

Villas-Boas fully understands the complexities that come with entering a club wracked with instability and uncertainty over the future.

When he was elected as president of Porto, the club were in a particularly difficult moment financially and sticking to a plan that they believed in was key. They are now top of the Portuguese league, in the semi-final of the domestic cup and face Nottingham Forest in the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final on Thursday night.

For Tottenham, the lack of foresight to stick to a plan has been their undoing.

‘Eight managers in five years doesn’t help because all of them are very, very different to one another, different methods, different way of selecting players, so this leads to instability as well,’ Villas-Boas, speaking in his capacity as a Laureus Ambassador ahead of next week’s awards in Madrid, added.

‘What we have done at Porto, for example, when we found instability in the first year, we found stability right now in this year.

‘We opted to renew our manager. Not only because of the results, but because of the relationship he has with the structure.

‘Structure meaning scouting teams and youth-level teams in the way he promotes youth players coming through as well. So we believe in the stability going into the future.

‘With Tottenham, you probably never had that in any of the cases because there is the pressure of results.

‘But they have changed managers, they have changed the leading structures, they have changed also sports directors as well, from (Franco) Baldini to (Fabio) Paratici to the current sports director (Johan Lange).’

That is the opinion of former Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas, who has spoken to Daily Mail Sport

Villas-Boas (right) is hopeful that Roberto De Zerbi (left) can formulate a plan Spurs can believe in

Asked if Roberto De Zerbi, a man who is in firefighting mode after losing his first game in charge away to Sunderland while their relegation rivals picked up crucial points, can finally set Spurs on a path to prosperity, Villas-Boas remained bullish.

‘De Zerbi has to deliver results,’ he concluded.

‘It’s a long term contract anyway, so probably they have found out that those things that I mentioned here (about instability of ideas), De Zerbi will be able to deliver to them.

‘And if eventually they go down, they can come back up because they have the infrastructure and the quality of the players and the resources to do it.’

The 2026 Laureus World Sports Awards will be staged in Madrid, a global city of sport, on Monday 20th April. Visit: www.laureus.com