Exactly. At 19 years old he had an argument with Bobby Robson and the end result was Bobby giving him a job, Jose Mourinho classed him as his 'eyes and ears' when referring to match and opponent preparation. If he can command respect of people like that then footballers will understand he has something from the off. With him being there before he'd have interacted with senior players preparing them for opponents, his knowledge won't be in question by them, he's already been telling them what to do for years.
IIRC there was a dossier floating about on us when Jose was manager, it was probably AVB who prepared it.
Aye: it was AVB who prepared it: here's the link
http://www.bragafut.com/artigos/art18.pdf