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Better without Bale: Villas-Boas sees positives in new-look Spurs as £30m Lamela jets in
ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS said Tottenham can be better without Gareth Bale as long as chairman Daniel Levy continues to bring in the big-name stars before the window closes on Monday.
Spurs are set to break their transfer record for the third time this summer to sign Erik Lamela from Roma for £30million after the club finally accepted Bale is on his way to Real Madrid.
Villas-Boas spoke for the first time of Bale's £86m move in terms of "when" rather than "if" yesterday. He said "very soon" was the most likely time frame for the transfer.
"If the deal happened it could be the biggest transfer in world football," said Villas-Boas.
"It's hard to say if it is a good deal for Spurs. Gareth was a player who was great to have last season, he had a great impact.
"Our idea is to be stronger than the year before. If we conclude certain targets that we are looking for, we can be that team. If we conclude other targets, maybe we are not that team.
"We have a very strong team all the same. If Bale leaves, it will give the team an opportunity to step up their game, step up the responsibility, and we have seen that in the past couple of games."
Lamela's likely arrival will take Tottenham's spending to £90m for the summer and the 21-year-old Argentina international is as close to a like-for-like replacement for Bale as any of the new arrivals.
Christian Eriksen of Ajax is also on the radar after Spurs made an opening £6.9m bid, and last night the Dane was given permission to speak to them. And the spending may not end there.
"I have told you that we will continue re-strengthening the squad so we are looking at different positions to make us stronger," said Villas-Boas.
"Not only those players, others as well. In the next couple of days we will have further news and I think we will see further additions at Tottenham."
One player not arriving is Juan Mata, though, after Villas-Boas had a dig at former mentor Jose Mourinho, accusing him of being scared of Tottenham.
"Mata is a great player - player of the season last season, a very important player for Chelsea," he said.
"But Chelsea wouldn't sell to Tottenham in any way , as they think that we are title contenders.
"They're just not going to strengthen another team that, in their opinion, are rivals for the title."