When André Villas-Boas arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2011, he walked into a dressing room filled with some of the biggest names in soccer history and a core group of veterans who had helped build Chelsea’s modern success.
Almost immediately, tensions between the Portuguese manager and his players boiled over during a preseason flight.
According to club legend John Terry, the relationship got off to a disastrous start on a 13-hour flight to Asia. Terry boarded the plane only to find himself sitting in economy, while young prospects like Josh McEachran and Nathaniel Chalobah occupied first-class seats.
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Terry viewed it as a power play by the new manager to prove that no player was bigger than him. Refusing to let it slide, the defender put his foot down and made it clear that the senior players belonged in first class, while the younger players needed to head back to economy.
In an interview two years ago, Terry revealed his side of the story.
“no, we’re not going anywhere until these young players go back in economy, and the first team players that have built this club to where we are today go back in first,” he said.
André Villas-Boas Shuts Down John Terry’s Claims
During an episode of the ‘Obi One Podcast’ with John Obi Mikel, Villas-Boas offered a very different view of the incident.
“We are speaking about first class or business class, we are not speaking about economy.”
“This is precisely me as a principled human being setting out the rules. The rules were: we only had a few free spaces in first class which couldn’t fit all of the first-team players, the established players,” Villas-Boas explained.
Faced with a limited number of seats, he had to make a choice among the likes of Petr Cech, Didier Drogba, John Terry, and Frank Lampard, while leaving out others like John Obi Mikel, Florent Malouda, and Salomon Kalou.
Rather than picking a select few big names and creating friction, Villas-Boas opted to send the senior players to business class and the academy players to first class.
“The principle was precisely that. Instead of creating a problem, let’s put [in first-class] the academy boys and send the rest of the guys to business class. That was the reasoning.”
The former Chelsea boss maintained that the seating arrangement had no negative impact on their preseason because the team’s form was excellent.
“I see it completely differently. John sees it the other way around,” he said.
Looking back, Villas-Boas attributed the clash to his own stubbornness as well.
“It probably had something to do with my principled way, my stubbornness, or not seeing the big picture, the big prima Donna who wanted to go in first class,” he explained.
Villas-Boas added: “I am not sure if I would do it differently, right now. It’s a practical, efficient thing.”
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