The agent of Andre Villas-Boas has performed something of a U-turn when it comes to speculation about taking over from Neil Lennon as manager of Celtic, as reported by The Scottish Sun.
Villas-Boas was reported to be one of the betting favourites to be installed as permanent boss at Celtic Park after the departure of Brendan Rodgers in February.
That prompted comment from his agent Jean-Paul Lares yesterday that curtly ruled out the Portuguese from working in Scotland.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, Lares said: “Andre will not be working in Scotland in the foreseeable future and will not be available for comment.”
However, just hours later, Lares did an about turn, contacting the same paper to say: “Andre has the deepest affection for both Scotland and the Scottish people and the fondest memories of the time he spent there. But we have received no offers from Scottish clubs and no decision has been made on his future, so there’s no way a valid comment can be made on this subject.”
That’s a far warmer tone than the original comment and doesn’t rule out a move to Celtic at all, in fact potentially opening the door to contact from decision makers at Celtic Park.
The former Porto and Chelsea boss is currently unemployed after a short spell in China he walked away from to, rather bizarrely, compete as a rally driver in the famous Dakar Rally.
Nonetheless, he has the kind of credentials that Celtic would surely be interested in when thinking about the future direction of the club.
After a long association with Jose Mourinho as a coach and assistant manager he eventually hit the big time after an extraordinary season at Porto in 2010/11.
In his first season in charge there he led them to an ‘Invicibles’ season in the Portuguese top-flight, also winning the national cup competition and the UEFA Europa League. In doing so he became the youngest ever manager to win a European competition at 33 years old.
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