Kyle Walker revealed that former Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas “started crying in front of us” after being sacked by chairman Daniel Levy in December 2013.
The Manchester City defender, who played for Spurs for eight years between 2009 and 2017, described Villas-Boas as “so, so nice” during an episode of the You’ll Never Beat Kyle Walker podcast.
Walker recalled the emotional moment when Villas-Boas addressed the team following his dismissal, saying it left a lasting impact on him. He mentioned that some members of the squad were also moved to tears during the heartfelt farewell.
“I’ve got tears running down my eyes… Michael Dawson is welling up,” said the 34-year-old. “That’s how much he meant to the lads.”
Portuguese manager Andre Villas-Boas took charge of Tottenham Hotspur in July 2012 and came close to securing a Champions League spot in his first season, finishing just one point behind fourth-placed Arsenal in the Premier League.
That season, Spurs’ squad featured Gareth Bale, who was named the 2012-13 PFA Player of the Year.
The Welsh star then made a then-world record move to Real Madrid for £85.3 million in the summer of 2013. Despite the club reinvesting in the squad, the team struggled the following season.
A series of poor performances culminated in a 5-0 defeat to Liverpool in December 2013, leading to Villas-Boas’ dismissal. Kyle Walker expressed regret that the team did not perform well enough to save their manager’s job.
“Bale was a massive, massive loss,” he said. “They signed seven players off the back of the Bale money. There’s a lot of changes there and we just never really gelled in time for him [Villas-Boas] to then do well.”
Despite the fact that the team “didn’t do him justice”, Walker says of his former boss, “for 10 or 12 men to be crying because the manager’s gone, he’s done something well in the dressing room”.
‘Really hurt’ by selection call
Walker also discussed his relationship with former Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino on the podcast.
Despite being a key player for Tottenham, he found himself facing competition for the right-back position during his final season from fellow England international Kieran Trippier.
While Walker expressed his “utmost respect” for Trippier, he admitted feeling it was “a little bit of a low blow” when Pochettino chose to start Trippier over him in Spurs’ final game at White Hart Lane—a 2-1 victory against Manchester United in May 2017.
“He [Pochettino] brought me on at, like, 84 minutes or something like that,” said Walker. “That’s the one thing that really hurt me.
“I just felt that I’ve been here for so long. That ground actually meant so much to me.”
Walker said Pochettino gave him permission to leave the club in the summer of 2017 after telling him Trippier would be his first choice right-back.
However, the 34-year-old said he “doesn’t have a bad word to say” about his former coach and that, “I say thank you and whenever I see him, I give him a hug and a cuddle and that’s it”.
Hodgson’s angry side
During the podcast, Walker revealed which managers have delivered the most severe tellings-off during his career.
He said former England manager Roy Hodgson was generally “very formal and polite” but that “when he lost it, something else would come out”.
He remembered one time when the 77-year-old kept the team back “for about half an hour” after a poor performance at Wembley, “just hammering us”.
Walker also singled out former Tottenham manager Pochettino, saying: “If I was going to say someone who lost it, I’d probably say him just because of how passionate he was about the game.”
“He was quite calm, but when he lost it, he could flip,” he added.