People in football getting paid ludicrous sums is not groundbreaking news.
But André Villas-Boas has just shifted the paradigm from silly money to completely absurd.
The former Spurs boss has been appointed manager of Chinese Super League team Shanghai SIPG for a reported £11m a year.
His new ridiculous deal means he’s on more money than the likes of Arsène Wenger (£8m) and Jürgen Klopp (around £7m).
Now the Chinese Super League has been throwing some eye-watering sums around lately in a bid to attract the sort of talent that will make it a global brand.
For instance in the summer the Chinese side Shandong Luneng signed Graziano Pelle from Southampton on a crazy £260,000-per-week deal.
However one interesting development of Villas-Boas’s new gilt-edged pay packet is that it now puts him in the same ballpark as his former mentor Jose Mourinho, who’s reportedly on around £10-12m a year.
Possibly not the sort of news an already cranky Jose wants to be hearing considering the pair fell out not long after Villas-Boas left his backroom team to pursue his own managerial career.
The pair’s relationship is apparently still sour and news like this is unlikely to aid the healing process.
It’s a good job Jose isn’t the petty, fiercely-competitive type.
