Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas claims Gunners’ boss have paid
heavily for £42.5million signing Mesut Ozil and claims Spurs have done better
business in the transfer market than most of their Champions League rivals. Arsenal’s
blockbuster capture from Real Madrid is suffering from a stomach upset but will
travel with his new team-mates to Sunderland as Arsene Wenger weighs up whether
the Germany playmaker is fit to make his debut.
All being well, Ozil will take his bow six hours prior to Gareth
Bale’s debut for Real Madrid at Villarreal on Saturday night. Bale’s £86m move
to the Spanish giants opened the door for Ozil’s switch to Arsenal for a club
record fee, while Tottenham splurged £100m-plus on Roberto Soldado, Erik
Lamela, Christian Eriksen, Paulinho and more.
Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas believes Arsenal have paid heavily for £42.5million signing Mesut Ozil and claims Spurs have done better business in the transfer market than most of their Champions League rivals.
Arsenal’s blockbuster capture from Real Madrid is suffering from a
stomach upset but will travel with his new team-mates to Sunderland as Arsene
Wenger weighs up whether the Germany playmaker is fit to make his debut.
All being well, Ozil will take his bow six hours before Gareth
Bale’s debut for Real Madrid at Villarreal on Saturday night. Bale’s £86m move
to the Spanish giants opened the door for Ozil’s switch to Arsenal for a club
record fee, while Tottenham splurged £100m-plus on Roberto Soldado, Erik
Lamela, Christian Eriksen, Paulinho and more.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has already suggested Tottenham have upset the balance of their squad but Villas-Boas hit back by arguing Arsenal’s policy has seen them pay a heavy price for a No 10 when ‘they have lots of players for that position’. The Spurs boss said: ‘Real Madrid sold a player for 50million euros; a wonderful, gifted footballer and in the end Arsenal paid heavily for a player of that dimension.
‘It’s a €50m transfer for a No 10 who nobody has any doubt over
his ability. They have lots of players for that position but they have become
stronger with Ozil.
‘We are happy with what we have done in the transfer window,
extremely happy. Arsenal did a great last-minute coup with Ozil but they
will be as competitive as they were before.
‘All of us have done good business in the transfer window — Man
City and us maybe a little bit more than Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal
and Liverpool.’
On Friday, Real Madrid sporting director Zinedine Zidane raised questions about Ozil’s commitment. ‘He decided to leave,’ said Zidane. ‘There are players who have responded with strength and will to fight for a place but not everyone reacted in the same way. Angel di Maria wanted to fight for us.’
Villas-Boas is hoping his remodelled squad will be up for the
fight, declaring today’s Premier League clash against Norwich would be a new
start for his side. Results such as the two league draws against Chris
Hughton’s side last season saw Tottenham miss out on Champions League football
by a point.
But Villas-Boas insisted lessons had been learned and he is
targeting a place among Europe’s elite.
‘We can only use it as a motivation and I think we will do,’ he said. ‘What Norwich did to us last year sets an example of what can’t happen this year.
‘We can only use it as a motivation and I think we will do,’ he said. ‘What Norwich did to us last year sets an example of what can’t happen this year.
‘This is a squad with great potential. We have done all of the
strengthening that we wanted to do in specific positions. It is something
we have done almost to make sure what happened last year does not happen
again.’
