Owen Coyle is looking forward to pitting his wits against an old friend as Bolton host Chelsea on Sunday.
Bolton boss saw Chelsea chief's potential on coaching course
Owen Coyle is looking forward to pitting his wits against an old friend as Bolton host Chelsea on Sunday.
The Bolton boss took part in the same pro-licence course as Andre Villas-Boas in Scotland in 2007 and even then Coyle could tell the Portuguese coach was destined for greatness.
At the time, Villas-Boas was serving his apprenticeship under Jose Mourinho as an assistant coach at Chelsea.
He then followed his compatriot to Inter Milan before stepping out from under Mourinho's wing in 2009, leading Porto to the treble last season before being offered the top job at Chelsea in the summer.
Coyle and Villas-Boas will renew acquaintances at the Reebok this weekend, live on
Sky Sports 1, with Chelsea third in the Premier League and the Scottish boss is not surprised how rapidly he progressed.
"Ultimately he is a winner. I saw that when we did our pro-licence together," said Coyle.
"This is not somebody who thought 'I'll go to Scotland on a whim and do a coaching badge, and then I might come back a year later.'
Meticulous
"This is somebody who knew exactly how they wanted to plan their future development, to go from one year to another to progress.
"That emphasises how meticulous he is in his preparation, and that goes for everything."
Villas-Boas was aged just 29 at the time and Coyle insists it was clear he was a managerial star in the making, adding: "I think all of us on the course could see that.
"As a group we all liked him, we all took to him, and I certainly felt he was somebody driven to succeed, very good at what they do and obviously wanting to progress.
"And like anybody else, because we all crave the same thing, if an opportunity did arise then I felt pretty sure he would take it, and he has done. He has become an outstanding manager."
Yet despite his obvious potential to reach the top, Villas-Boas did not have an ego and remains a down-to-earth guy.
Gentleman
"He is an absolute gentleman," Coyle added. "Under Jose he had a fantastic set-up to learn, but when you sit down with him as well, you find he is a gem.
"He is somebody whose company you like. You could sit and chat with him all night about football, and any other topic, because he is a very intelligent man as well.
"And what a lot of people might not know about him is he has a very good sense of humour.
"He joined in with the banter, gave as good as he got, and we liked that about him. He didn't take himself too seriously.
"If you give a bit of stick you have to take some as well. We all did that openly with a big smile on our face, and he was a big part of that.
"I became very good friends with him on the back of that, and he is somebody I've a lot of time for, and because of that I'm looking forward to Sunday."
Coyle will be determined to get one over his old pal as Bolton are desperate for points having lost all five since the opening day to sit bottom of the Premier League.
But they have a miserable record against the Blues, losing their last eight at home, conceding 20 in the process while failing to score once.
