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One year ago Andre Villas-Boas was considering unemployment.

He had lost his battle with the Chelsea dressing room and had left the club's Cobham training ground in tears.

But Villas-Boas is a fast learner, it's what helped propel him from DVD man under Jose Mourinho at Stamford Bridge to Europa League winner with Porto in just seven years.

So when a chance of redemption came at Spurs, Villas-Boas was clever enough not to make the same mistake twice.

Man-management was Villas-Boas' big problem at Chelsea, but he set about addressing that particular flaw as soon as he walked through the White Hart Lane doors.

Text messages were exchanged with players, not just about football. Villas-Boas took time to find out the interests of his squad and share jokes.

Players who had been warned of an emotionally detached tactics swot were pleasantly surprised.

Challenges presented themselves quickly. Villas-Boas fancied picking from a central defensive four of Jan Vertonghen, Younes Kaboul, Steven Caulker and William Gallas.

Michael Dawson was told he would start the season as fifth choice centre-back and a bid from QPR was accepted.

Despite being gutted at being informed he could leave, Dawson appreciated the honesty of Villas-Boas and was even more impressed when the Portuguese kept an open mind after the QPR move had been rejected.

Villas-Boas has been big enough to admit he made a mistake over Dawson. An injury to Kaboul let the 29-year-old back in and his performances are set to earn him a new contract.

Vertonghen has proved to be an excellent signing by Spurs chairman Daniel Levy and Villas-Boas has cleverly integrated him into the English game.

Recognising an opportunity because of an injury to Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Villas-Boas asked Vertonghen to acclimatise to the Premier League in the less critical role of left-back.

The decision afforded the Belgian greater time and leeway to find his feet before successfully moving into the centre of defence, where mistakes generally cost goals.

The goalkeeping situation was a potential minefield to negotiate.

France captain Hugo Lloris came in expecting to be made number one, but Brad Friedel had done little wrong and was a prominent member of the Spurs dressing room.

Villas-Boas handled the situation superbly, giving Friedel the respect he deserved while slowly but surely introducing Lloris.

There can now be no debate that Tottenham and Villas-Boas ultimately did the right thing in easing Lloris in ahead of 41-year-old Friedel.

He has been one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League over recent months and has all the tools to get even better under his excellent coach Tony Parks.

There was no better public validation of the relationship between Villas-Boas and his players than Gareth Bale's celebration after crashing in a last-minute winner against West Ham.

Villas-Boas embarrassingly had to ask the Chelsea players to run towards him after they scored, but Bale's embrace with his boss was instinctive.

(Image: Jamie McDonald)

It is easy to pass off the job 35-year-old Villas-Boas is doing by pointing to the fact he inherited a great squad and to some extent that is true.

But remember he lost Luka Modric to Real Madrid and Ledley King announced his retirement from football.

There is enough evidence to prove Villas-Boas has improved the talent that was already at White Hart Lane.

Aaron Lennon is enjoying one of his best seasons for Spurs and his goal against Arsenal showed a growing side to his game.

Always lightening quick, Lennon used to lack the ability to make the correct runs off the ball and his final product often let him down.

But the 25-year-old caught out both Nacho Monreal and Thomas Vermaelen with a superb run and finished coolly past Wojciech Szczesny.

The victory over Arsenal meant Tottenham are now on their longest-ever unbeaten run in the Premier League, 12 games, and are looking forward to Thursday night’s Europa League last-16 tie against Inter Milan.

This particular correspondent doubted whether both Tottenham and Villas-Boas were doing the right thing by uniting so soon after his Chelsea nightmare.

But Villas-Boas is grasping his second chance and is proving a lot of people, me included, wrong.

All managers make mistakes. The best managers quickly learn from them.

Read Matt Law exclusively on MirrorFootball, every Tuesday