Villas-Boas eyes more buys

Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas expects to make further signings before the transfer window shuts on Friday.

The London club have been busy in the transfer market so far, signing Moussa Dembele from Fulham and Emmanuel Adebayor from Manchester City, while selling Sebastian Bassong to Norwich City and Luka Modric to Real Madrid.

Tottenham have been linked with Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Willian and Lyon goalkeeper Hugo Lloris and Villas-Boas remains hopeful those deals can be completed.

“(Willian’s) a player that we showed interest in,” Villas-Boas said.

“We had initial contact with Shakhtar, who are a club in a wealthy position with a wealthy owner and not easy to deal with.

“You can’t say it’s over, but we have approached the club and the player and at the moment it doesn’t seem to be happening.”

He added: “We are very, very comfortable with our goalkeepers.

“We can take into account that there is a future that we have to prepare for going on from here, and in that sense we have studied possibilities in that position as well.

“Throughout the goalkeepers available, I think Hugo is one of the best.”

Villas-Boas warned the arrival of Willian and Lloris could see additional players move away from White Hart Lane.

“Obviously the squad is extremely big and we spoke about the players that we had to speak to regarding their future,” he said.

“We don’t want to leave them in an uncomfortable position where you can’t meet the amount of time the player expects to be involved in the squad.

“Sometimes it’s not possible to spread the time as fairly as the player thinks.”

One player who appears to be departing Spurs is Rafael van der Vaart, who is set to join Hamburg according to his agent.

But Villas-Boas has slammed Hamburg’s pursuit of the Dutchman, seemingly indicating that a deal was yet to be finalised.

“We have had interest from Hamburg but for a player of Rafa’s quality, it’s not something that the player deserves,” the Portuguese boss said.

“Tottenham should be respected as a club but at the moment that doesn’t seem to be happening.”