André Villas-Boas’ Philosophy of Composition?
By Josh Clarke
On initial inspection, similarities between Andre Villas-Boas’ Chelsea and Edgar Allan Poe seem most abundantly clear in a shared propensity for an excruciating and painfully drawn-out narrative (think Fernando Torres and The Pit and Pendulum). Push your luck a bit further and I could be persuaded to believe that a real, defensively-capable John Terry could be found in an Oval Portrait somewhere deep within Cobham.
Yet and perhaps least harrowing for Chelsea fans, could be the suggestion that Villas-Boas’ time at the helm at Stamford Bridge could be viewed a great deal more positively through the lens of Poe’s Philosophy of Composition.
Written as an exposition on how a poet achieves a powerful end effect, the essay lists the practices involved in the configuration of the poem The Raven. Leaving aside the distracting suggestion that the most poetic topic conceivable is the death of a beautiful woman – though an examination of this and Ashley Cole could well be saved for a rainy day – the basic premise is that a great piece of literature will be achieved through methodologically working back from a predetermined end point.
