Villas-Boas won’t be drawn on future after Shanghai Shenhua win Chinese FA Cup Portuguese’s SIPG

Andre Villas-Boas refused to discuss his future as coach of Shanghai SIPG after seeing his side lose to cross-city rivals Shanghai Shenhua in the Chinese FA Cup final on Sunday.

Shenhua won the trophy for the first time since 1998 with a victory on away goals after the teams shared a 3-3 aggregate draw, with SIPG winning Sunday’s second leg 3-2 at Shanghai Stadium.

Goals from Cao Yunding and Obafemi Martins gave Shenhua the edge and ensured Wu Jingui’s side book a spot in the group phase of next year’s Asian Champions League while SIPG ended the season without a trophy despite a huge outlay on foreign talent.

“It is not the right time to talk about whether I’m staying or leaving,” said the former Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Zenit St Petersburg manager Villas-Boas.

“SIPG knows my decision, so will you. But this is not the best time to talk about it.”

The club have spent more than €150 million (HK$1.4 billion) on foreign players over the last two years, with Oscar the headline signing when he joined for €60 million in January soon after Villas-Boas replaced Sven-Goran Eriksson at the helm.

Despite the investment, SIPG were unable to end Guangzhou Evergrande’s dominance of the Chinese Super League as they finished runners-up behind Luiz Felipe Scolari’s team and they ended the season without a trophy.