Tottenham Transfer News: Villas-Boas To Get £70 Million Budget?
Spurs’ aspirations are high, and rightly so, but without Champions League football to look forward to, will they be able to target the calibre of player expectations demand?
Having been unsurprisingly confirmed as Tottenham manager this week, Ladbrokes are this morning suggesting that Andre Villas-Boas will be given a hefty £70 million to juggle as his transfer fund. The bookies current stance is that AVB is odds-on to return to former club Chelsea in order to spend some of that substantial transfer kitty. The Chelsea players in question are England international Daniel Sturridge, who was unlucky to miss out on a Euro place yet is set to figure for Team GB in this summers Olympics. The other being one of AVBs signings whilst in charge at Chelsea, fellow countryman Raul Meireles, whos also a target for Napoli. Knowing Villas-Boas record from Chelsea, the Spurs board will want to back their newly appointed manager and will likely give him time, yet with the growing expectations of the Spurs faithful after the largely successful tenure of Harry Redknapp, will a place outside the top 4 be tolerable? With Meireles and Sturridge in the team at Chelsea he wasnt able to achieve this, so are they the right men to more Spurs forward? Adebayor isnt yet tied down, so either he, or another striker is a necessity. Sturridge has youth on his side and could likely help on the goal front, though the young striker was often deployed out wide by AVB at Chelsea. The already confirmed signing of Gylfi Sigurdsson, 22, could prove a great signing, already proven in English football at both Reading and Swansea, yet he plays in a position not dissimilar to van der Vaart, so how AVB uses him could prove interesting. Meireles too, should he be signed, has a lot of similar qualities in that midfield engine room as Scott Parker, and only a couple of years on his side. Is this what they really need? Perhaps not, but as shown at Chelsea, AVB will want to make the team his. With Modric again suggesting that he wants to leave for Champions League football, a replacement for him may too be required. After a decent European Championship, perhaps another of AVBs countrymen, Joao Moutinho would be a well-received signing, similar to Modric in his carrying and distribution of the ball. Spurs aspirations are high, and rightly so, but without Champions League football to look forward to, will they be able to target the calibre of player expectations demand? Will AVB the right man for the job, and is he targeting the right players? The pressure will be on, as the sacking of good old Harry wasnt exactly met with adulation down at The Lane.