Albion chief ready for Villas-Boas reunion
STEVE Clarke will be reunited with former Chelsea colleague Andre Villas-Boas when Albion travel to Tottenham on Saturday (ko 3pm).
Clarke, who served as assistant-head coach to Jose Mourinho, worked alongside Villas-Boas during the 'Special One’s' Stamford Bridge reign.
Villas-Boas was appointed Chelsea boss last summer and earned his first victory in a 2-1 home win over the Baggies - before departing shortly after a 1-0 defeat at The Hawthorns in March.
But the Baggies boss believes Villas-Boas has excelled as a young manager despite leaving the Blues after less than nine months in charge.
“First of all you have to say in a short space of time he's had a fantastic career,” said Clarke.
“He got the job at Academica in Portugal, then he got the job at Porto winning the league, the cup and the Europa League which was a fantastic achievement in his first year.
“He then got his move to Chelsea.
“It didn't work out for him but I'm sure he's learned a lot from the experience.
“I worked with him when he was at Chelsea.
“He was Jose's match assessor and he would do match reports, scouting and put together DVDs on opposition and what we could expect.
“His reports were very detailed.
“You could see his ambition even then, bearing in mind that was back in 2004 so he was very young. “
He added: “What will his report say about us for this Saturday? I would think it'll say 'they're a good team and we can expect a difficult game at home'.
“Tottenham played well at Newcastle on Saturday.
“It's a tough place to go and they were unfortunate to concede the penalty after making it 1-1. They were unlucky to lose the game.”