Villas-Boas's man-management has been an eye-catching feature of his six months in charge and he has succeeded where he failed at Chelsea in the implementation of a meritocracy. His near-pathological impulse to treat everybody the same, from the club captain to the cleaner, has gone down well, making him popular and, crucially, stoking the fires of fair competition within a talented squad. If you train and play well, you will be picked, regardless of reputation.
Talk to staff at the club about Villas-Boas and the picture forms of a likable and engaging guy, who is interested in them and has the capacity to bring everybody together.
His prioritising of team spirit saw him take the players out for dinner in New York, during the pre-season tour, and do so again in London at Christmas time, together with the coaches, medics and kit-man. He does not deal in the extremes of emotion after matches, not even the 3-2 victory at United in September, which has been the highlight thus far. He treated it as a normal win.
Defoe is obviously a fan. "It's difficult for André because he was at Chelsea and things weren't great there," he says. "Everyone's looking at him. Even before the season started, a lot of people were doubting him. What he has done so far has been brilliant. All the lads love him. He's got great ideas. He's really organised."
Villas-Boas's attention to detail is meticulous, his sessions are sharp and everything has a carefully calibrated purpose. When his team were shipping late goals, he said he "increased the complexity of the tasks the players have been doing at the end of training" to promote concentration. That was in mid-December. They have not conceded a late goal since.