KYLE WALKER revealed the whole Tottenham dressing room burst into tears when former boss Andre Villas-Boas was sacked.
Villas-Boas was given his marching orders after a chastening 5-0 home defeat against Liverpool in December 2013 – but one former England star was particularly distraught.
The Manchester City defender, who spent eight years at Spurs between 2009-17, described his former manager as “so, so nice“.
On the latest episode of the You’ll Never Beat Kyle Walker podcast, he said: “I can remember when he left, Levy sacked him and he came downstairs and was sort of crying in front of us.
“He started crying. I’ve got tears running down my eyes… Michael Dawson is welling up and couldn’t stop crying, like emotionally crying.
“Because that’s how much he meant to the lads. Now we probably did not do him justice on the pitch because that’s why he got the sack.
“But for 10 or 12 men to be crying because the manager’s gone. He’s done something well in the dressing room and I think a footballer’s side is connected with us as well.”
England defender Dawson was Tottenham’s captain at the time and was particularly close with Villas-Boas.
Walker – who is now managed by the fair but ruthless Pep Guardiola – also explained that perhaps Villas-Boas was “too nice” and would text players on their birthdays.
The England star added: “I think that [niceness] probably killed him.”
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Villas-Boas enjoyed a good first season at White Hart Lane during 2012-13, taking Spurs to the brink of the Champions League with a squad that included an emergent Gareth Bale.
But Bale was sold to Real Madrid for £85.3 million after the North London side missed out on qualification for Europe’s elite competition by one point to rivals Arsenal.
The Welshman’s fee – a world record at the time – was invested badly and Villas-Boas soon found himself under pressure, with Luka Modric sold to Madrid for £33m during the previous summer.
Spurs replaced Bale with Christian Eriksen, Paulinho, Roberto Soldado, Nacer Chadli, Etienne Capoue, Erik Lamela and Vlad Chiriches.
Walker admitted he regrets the fact the team did not perform well enough to keep Villas-Boas in his job.
The 34-year-old added: “Bale was a massive, massive loss.
“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 the manager to then do well.”
Walker left Spurs for Man City in 2017 for £45m, where he established himself as one of the world’s best right-backs, and became the Etihad’s captain at the start of last season.
Meanwhile, Villas-Boas took over at Zenit Saint Petersburg shortly after leaving the Premier League, going on to manage Shanghai SIPG and most recently Marseille in Ligue 1.
The 46-year-old is now the president of Porto, the club where he captured a treble that included the Europa League before he moved to England with Chelsea in 2011.
