Andre Villas-Boas admits it was flattering to be approached by Paris Saint Germain in the summer, but he has no regrets as he believes Tottenham are more advanced in their progress than the French champions.
Villas-Boas admits he was disappointed not to have worked more closely with Mourinho during their time together.
"I was not Mourinho's number two, I was part of his staff in several clubs, but I never was his assistant," he said.
"That is one of the reasons why we parted. I thought I could give him a lot more, but he didn't feel the need to have someone beside him."
Chelsea lessons
The former Chelsea boss admitted that he learnt a lot from his short stint at Stamford Bridge, but he did change his methods after his spell in West London.
"Chelsea was a good experience to me because it allowed me to understand there are things I could not do," he revealed.
"I was the same coach I was in Porto. I wanted the team to follow my direction but I didn't find enough support to follow that direction.
"That experience taught me a lot and now at Tottenham I do things a different way. It is a matter of dynamics: if you win on the weekend, the leaders will follow you. And at Chelsea you are quickly under big pressure.
"Now I manage things a different way with key players. At Chelsea, I treated everyone the same way. But to make such decisions you have to get the club's support and you can't find it everywhere. At Porto, you get it.
"Chelsea was an experience to have. It made me stronger. I failed indeed. I had to win and I failed. Was it an impossible mission? It could have been possible, but indeed maybe it was impossible."
Villas-Boas admits Spurs' ambitions for the future were the main thing that persuaded him to take the White Hart Lane job, as he had a lot of options.
"I had contacts with a lot of teams, but I had a good talk with Tottenham and I felt there was something great to achieve: new stadium project, a chairman who wanted to develop his club," he said.
"The objective is to stabilise the club in the English football elite so that means playing in the Champions League regularly. Last year, we failed. Sometimes we were very strong but we had a gap in March and April."
