Back Spurs To Have A Great Season

Talk to any Spurs fan at the moment, and they’re fairly downbeat about the prospect of the departure of Gareth Bale and the consequences for the club. This is, of course, understandable.

But Spurs are much more than a one-man team, and the £100 million-plus type of amounts being discussed for Bale via Real Madrid will give manager André Villas-Boas some real spending power.

Of course, he’s already splashed out in the transfer market, creating a record for Spurs with the £26 million signing of Roberto Soldado from Valencia. This could prove to be a very shrewd piece of business over the course of the season ahead. Soldado is no slouch, netting 30 times during 46 appearances for Valencia last season.

This was Villas-Boas’s third major signing of the summer. Earlier in the year, he signed Corinthians midfielder Paulinho for close to £17 million, as well as winger Nacer Chadli from Dutch side FC Twente. These three signings could combine to make Spurs even more of a force to be reckoned with – and will certainly add much needed depth to the squad.

AVB already doing well

Bear in mind, too, that Tottenham managed a club record number of points last season, setting a new record for the number of points scored in the Premier League for any club that didn’t subsequently go on to qualify for the Champions League. Arsenal’s win on the last day of last season was an absolute heartbreaker for Spurs fans, who then missed out on the fourth spot by just one point – missing out on a Champions League place in the process.

But this may prove to be a blessing in disguise. Without the major distraction the Champions League brings, Spurs are free to devote all their efforts to the Premier League and making another push for the top four. What’s more: The four clubs expected to do better than Spurs, according to the bookmakers, all have issues of their own. At the two Manchester clubs and Chelsea, there are new men at the helm, so AVB is a veritable old hand with a season under his belt. Meanwhile, Arsenal hasn’t yet made significant transfer moves, and Wenger’s enthusiasm for the whole thing could now be on the wane.

Okay, the “special one” is a force to be reckoned with, but Villas-Boas would love to put one over on his old boss, and at just 35 years of age, he’s still finding his own managerial feet.

Back Spurs for top-four

Overall, then, I’m expecting Spurs to have a very good season – and a better one than their odds currently suggest. If you’re the betting type, I feel it’s worth backing the north Londoners to finish in the top-four with a little of your hard-earned – though if you fancy picking up a little cash that isn’t quite as hard-earned, check out the staggeringly generous introductory offers at Ukcasino-club.co.uk. Given a little luck with the bonus, a reinvestment of the proceeds in backing Spurs to do better than is currently expected could be a wise decision.

We don’t expect AVB to actually land the title, unfortunately; his old boss looks most likely to do that at Chelsea, as the bosses at the two Manchester clubs are relatively unknown forces (at this level in England anyway). But we do expect them to win some big names and to end up in a top three position – regardless of what happens with Gareth Bale – and above their North London rivals.