The point about the whole Andre Villas-Boas situation isn’t whether or not he deserves to keep his job with Spurs. It’s about his future in the Premier League as a manager after already getting sacked once by Chelsea, there’s a good chance he won’t get another opportunity from a club of this stature for a very long time.
Patience is needed, even when you spend over £100 million on new players. Manchester City are actually a good example of playing this game the right way. Mark Hughes wasn’t sacked until it was clear that he wasn’t the man to take the Citizens to the next step. Roberto Mancini wasn’t fired mid-season despite another Champions League failure, and Manuel Pellegrini is going to be given the season at least, and probably more as long as Manchester City are in the title race till the very end.
Tottenham aren’t known for their patience. Harry Redknapp did break that vicious cycle of coming in during the season after a terrible start and not lasting more than 12 months post-hiring, but he didn’t turn Tottenham into a perennial top 4 team. Villas-Boas was a fraction away from that, but he probably would have liked to give up on most of the new signings if he would have just been able to keep Gareth Bale on the team.
Villas-Boas is a career manager. Someone who has never been a footballer, and is on this career path since the age of 21. Jose Mourinho was an awful player, and plenty of great managers didn’t make a fraction of an impact on the footballing world during their playing days. But Villas-Boas isn’t the management wonderkid some thought he was when he led Porto to a perfect season, winning the league title and the Europa League while not losing a single match.
His personal interactions with players were cast into doubt during his time with Chelsea, but who knows what was going on behind the scenes at Stamford Bridge, as his attempts to change the club resulted in a mutiny against him. There doesn’t seem to be any special connection with players at White Hart Lane as well.
Managers shouldn’t get fired for losing to Manchester United, but after such a poor start to the season, embodied by an atrocious scoring record, the options are running out for Villas-Boas, who seemed stunned and wrecked after the loss to Manchester City, maybe understanding that whatever he tries to do and rectify the situation, he won’t be given the sufficient time to see this squad turning into what it should become.