Porto chairman André Villas-Boas recently shared reflections on his time managing Chelsea at a public event and acknowledged mistakes he made during his tenure in England.

Villas-Boas said: "When I left Porto to become Chelsea's manager, I thought my approach at Porto could be applied directly to Chelsea. Be disciplined, set high standards, and make everyone understand that no one is bigger than the club."

However, the reality of Chelsea's dressing room presented different challenges that required him to adjust his management style.

Villas-Boas emphasized: "The truth is, that dressing room had its own characteristics, with exceptionally talented players, big stars, and so on. It was a group of players, each with distinct personalities. For a leader, this usually means you cannot abandon your fundamental and universal principles, especially regarding personal character and how you treat people. But at the same time, you have to learn to wear a mask. The purpose of that mask is essentially to maximize each player's potential and allow them to perform at their best on the pitch."

To illustrate the necessity of personalized motivation for individual players, Villas-Boas cited an example from outside the sports world.

He said: "This is very difficult because we all follow the principle: 'I am the same person regardless of who I'm dealing with.' But people in leadership positions understand very well that to motivate a specific individual, we must adjust our approach. With some people, we need to apply pressure, be strict, and maintain standards, because that's how they work. With others, we need to give them security, treat them like friends, and be open with them."

"I often reference Ray Dalio, one of the leaders of Bridgewater Associates. He wrote a book called 'Principles,' which I highly recommend reading. The book discusses his life principles and how he built his investment fund into one of the world's largest and most successful investment organizations."

Villas-Boas believes that his lack of flexibility in enforcing rules was the main reason for his unsuccessful period at Stamford Bridge.

Villas-Boas said: "Some players are exceptionally talented, some players have high self-awareness and demand a certain level of flexibility in our management style, a difference in how we respect them and interact with them. Chelsea is an example, and one reason for my failure there lies in this.

"I believed that everyone should be on the same level, everyone should follow the same rules, and there should be no distinction. That is why I completely failed.

"When respecting and taking into account the special position of certain individuals, a leader must adapt. Of course, in a sports team, the coach's authority must always be supreme. After all, the coach spends every day, every minute with the players, understands their frustrations, knows when they train well or poorly, and also knows when they will challenge authority or break discipline."

Ultimately, Villas-Boas asserted that the top stars on a team need to be treated differently than other players.

He said: "I believe that a leader's authority should never be questioned. Decisions must be made with authority, and it must always be that way.

"Of course, there are things that require us to give special attention to certain players and make some compromises. But it is also true that within a team's operations, everyone understands that some people are simply different; they have helped the team achieve certain objectives.

"Setting Cristiano Ronaldo aside for a moment, we can think of many players who have reached this level, such as Ronaldinho and Neymar. And of course, Pelé and Maradona should be mentioned here as well.

"Everyone knows these players are different. If you want them to perform at their best, you need to treat them specially. Of course, these players themselves must also be mature enough, conduct themselves properly, know their place, and respect the coach."

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