#INSERT type:image caption:Andre Villas-Boas hinted that Tottenham director of football Franco Baldini is set to leave the club in the near future. END#
Zenit St Petersburg boss Andre Villas-Boas has revealed that Liverpool approached him before he took over as Tottenham head coach in 2012, but says he has no plans to return to the Premier League.
Exactly one year since the end of his 18-month tenure at Spurs, the former Chelsea manager -- who lasted only nine months at Stamford Bridge -- said he was "not even minimally interested in returning" to the Premier League, but admitted: "It was an experience I needed to have."
"Returning to England is not in my plans," he told Portuguese TV station TVI. "I had talks with Liverpool, a club I have admiration for, but they are not in my plans, I can only say that life takes many turns. Coaching in England was a positive experience but it also had its negatives."
The 37-year-old has led Zenit to a seven-point lead in the Russian Premier League, although the club failed to qualify for the last-16 of the Champions League.
"I chose Zenit also to get away from the media glare. I've had my fill of media sensationalism and false promises," he said.
Villas-Boas also said Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy did not keep his promises over signing new players during his time at the club and did not push for any of the players he had selected after Gareth Bale went to Real Madrid for over 100 million euros.
"The chairman proposed a challenge to increase Tottenham's competitive level, but immediately [Luka] Modric left and we didn't get any of the targets I had identified such as Joao Moutinho, Willian, Oscar or Leandro Damiao," he added
"These were promises that were not kept. I had a group of players I had not chosen. In two years I lost [Rafael] van der Vaart, Modric, Bale, and all the promises made were unfulfilled."
Villas-Boas insisted that he was unlucky to depart Tottenham and criticised technical director Franco Baldini, who he claims did not bring him the players he wanted and is under pressure this season.
"Tottenham set a points and victories record in my first season, missed out on the Champions League by one point and had a great run in the Europa League," he said.
"In the second season, at the time I left we had more points than in the previous campaign. I ended up leaving by mutual agreement -- I wasn't sacked -- because I gave full support to the football director despite him having other ambitions, meaning that I ended up with players that did not fit the profile I wanted.
"I speak of Franco Baldini, who came from AS Roma and is now in a precarious position, out of the club. But I don't look at my time at Tottenham as a negative experience. It was an experience I needed to have."
A former member of Jose Mourinho's coaching team at Chelsea and Inter Milan, the pair have reportedly had a strained relationship ever since but Villas-Boas said he would sit down to a glass of wine with his countrymate.
"If I had the chance again, why not?" Villas Boas said. "This question is asked of me frequently, as if there was some animosity. We have recently spoken and there is a relationship of mutual respect for the moments that we shared. Of course, when people are going to compete, friendship sometimes is put on the backburner. It should not happen, but it does."