Andre Villas-Boas expects a “frantic” end to the transfer that he admits could see Gareth Bale leave Tottenham.
Bale will sit out the first leg of Tottenham’s Europa League play-off against Dinamo Tbilisi tomorrow as he continues to pine for a move to Real Madrid. While Bale has been recovering from what has officially been branded a foot injury, Tottenham have spent £60 million (€70m) on four new signings and they could shell out that same figure over the next two days.
Willian is undergoing medical tests in London ahead of a £30m (€35m) transfer from Anzhi Makhachkala while Spurs are locked in talks with Roma regarding Argentinian midfielder Erik Lamela.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to the reasoning behind the uncharacteristic record splurge by chairman Daniel Levy. One is that he wants to bring the stellar signings in to persuade Bale to stay and the other, more popular one, is that the chairman is already spending the world-record fee the Londoners would receive if Bale left for the Bernabeu.
In a press conference in Tblisi this evening Villas-Boas was asked which one was the case and he was reluctant to say the new signings had been bought in order to try to tempt Bale to stay.
“Ideally we want to keep everyone to make us stronger — that is the ultimate objective of the club,” the Spurs manager said. “In the end, anything can happen. We are dragging ourselves into the last weeks of transfer activity and it can become very, very frantic.”
Villas-Boas denied a deal had already been agreed with the nine-time European champions — “That is not true,” he said, but he did concede players would depart before September 2nd.
Regardless of what happens with Bale, there is undoubted excitement among Spurs supporters about the prospect of Willian, Lamela and Real Madrid left-back Fabio Coentrao joining the club. Out of respect to the clubs they belong to, Villas-Boas would not go into detail about Tottenham’s pursuit of the trio, but he did concede talks had begun with Anzhi over the signing of Willian.
“I can confirm there is an interest in the player and conversations (have taken place),” the Portuguese said. Tottenham’s biggest spending spree in their history has raised eyebrows in the game, particularly at Chelsea, where manager Jose Mourinho last night claimed the north London club must now be considered as title contenders. Villas-Boas, who used to work under Mourinho at Chelsea and Inter, says Spurs will not compete for the title this season, but he did admit that it was a possibility in the coming years if the team continue to improve.
“I don’t agree that we can be title contenders for this season coming because everything is happening, everything is changing,” the 35-year-old said. “We have to create a team at the moment from all these new players that we have bought. We haven’t had lots of time to work with them and believe that in the future we can definitely achieve it.”
Indeed Villas-Boas, who turned down two offers to leave Tottenham this summer, would love to lead the club to a quadruple just as he did at Porto. “It is something that can happen in the future. “In my opinion the English league is the best league in the world and continues to attract the best players to play there. That can put you in a very good position to dominate European football and other trophies so it is possible that one day it might happen. It could only be a dream to achieve it with Tottenham.
“What we are building is a very, very strong side for the future, alongside massive investment in the structures of the club. So that dream can hopefully happen in a couple of years.”
Sandro, Aaron Lennon and Jan Vertonghen have all been rested ahead of tomorrow’s game against the Georgian champions.
