Seeing as most people are seeing the 2012-2013 title as a foregone conclusion with United on course to win their 20th league title, the focus is now starting to shift onto who's going to hold on to the three remaining Champions League qualification spots!
Manchester City have been floating around in second place since late 2012 and they seem to be struggling to keep up with Manchester United at the top of the table, seemingly without noticing who are creeping up on them in 3rd, Tottenham Hotspur.
Now, Spurs have previously qualified for the Champions League under previous management with Harry Redknapp however Daniel Levy presumably, decided to release him and then went on to bring in the previous Porto and most recently, Chelsea manager. A lot of questions were asked at the time of this appointment seeing as he didn't do very well with a Chelsea team backed by Roman's millions but Daniel Levy decided to give Villas-Boas something that Roman Abramovich didn't have and hasn't had with a lot of managers bar a certain Mr Mourinho and that is, time.
In the summer of 2012 during the transfer market, AVB decided to take a chance on a certain Belgian centre half that few people had heard of before Ajax came up against Manchester United in the Europa League.
Jan Vertonghen, a left footed "rolls royce" of a defender, still young and still learning yet seemingly playing like a defender who's grew up in the Premier League rather than the Eredivisie, it's been quoted that during that mentioned summer he did have a lot of suitors but nobody was willing to take a chance on the player and now Tottenham are reaping the rewards of a centre half that's pretty much going to be in Belgiums national team alongside the world class Vincent Kompany for the next few years at least.
He brought in Gylfi Sigurdsson who was loaned from Hoffenheim to Swansea in the 2011-2012 season and had a massive impact on keeping them afloat, for a reported fee of £8 million, has proven to be a very good squad player however few would argue he would be doing a better job back at Swansea as a starter however the Welsh team, seem to be doing fine without him.
He invested also in two of Fulhams want-away most attacking players in Clint Dempsey and Moussa Dembele, the former had been linked with Liverpool throughout the summer and the latter, linked with Manchester United. Now Clint Dempsey hasn't become a vital part of the Tottenham team yet however with Dembele it's a totally different story. With him having forged a balanced on the pitch relationship with Sandro, Tottenham had found the perfect balance in midfield with one doing the dirty work and one being the "ball carrier" into the final third however that partnership was short lived as Sandro fell to injury and underwent surgery in January 2013.
Looking past the signings Mr Villas Boas brought in and what he did with players that were there before he was, who he sold and who stayed you cannot argue with his work.
Luka Modric, the Croat who tried to push for a move to Chelsea in a previous market was sold to Spanish giants Real Madrid for a fee of 26 million. Few would argue he's worth that much on the pitch but he was obviously worth that much to Spurs and their ambitions.
Rafael Van Der Vaart, a dutch playmaker many feel that Manchester United missed out on was sold back to HSV for a reported fee of £10.8 million. It was well documented that Van Der Vaart's stamina wasn't the best and had to be subbed many-a time so it wasn't often you seen him finishing 90 minutes.
During his spell at Porto, he went the full season unbeaten and also won the treble with his side which did lead to many journo's drawing similarities with him and his fellow country man, Jose Mourinho. But it wasn't that, what stood out most of all. It was his man-management skills and his ability to put belief into the the best players in that Porto side, mainly Hulk, Joao Moutinho and the world class striker who moved onto La Liga since, Radamel Falcao.
AVB has currently put them man management skills to use with Gareth Bale and what a revelation he has become this season not to mention being the main reason behind Tottenhams sudden surge up the table into second and only a few points behind the current Premier League champions, Manchester City who are lingering in 2nd.
His current form has given journalists, football fans and pundits many reasons to class him as one of the worlds best players and few could argue with his goals to games ratio playing as a winger.
In my eyes, Tottenham only need a handful of class players to push on for a go at the league.
They do have enough depth as it is but in certain areas, when they lose a player to injury/suspension .. the player that comes in for him just isn't good enough. Mainly right back and strikers i personally feel they need to improve. Their midfield is good enough on any given day to play against anyone in the league and maybe in Europe, their defence is young but always learning. Kyle Walker has made that right back position his own but with minimum threat plus he's still prone to the odd error and lapse in concentration.. most recently against Liverpool on the 10th of March and against Chelsea at White Hart Lane when Juan Mata admittedly got into his head and he gave away a goal in the 90th minute.
Jermaine Defoe and Adebayor who are regularly rotated in this Spurs team i feel, are not good enough if Spurs want to push on in the league. Worth mentioning that Jermaine Defoe has been quite selfish over recent weeks when in goal scoring situations, maybe all the attention and headlines that Gareth Bale is grabbing is getting to him, who's to say?
Off the top of my head i can think of many players that Spurs could enquire/go in for who would not only improve their team but could even attract even bigger players to be a part of this clubs project.
Leandro Damiao, Stevan Jovetic are some of the names that have been mentioned before but most recently Gary Hooper of Celtic in the SPL has been linked with a summer exit, could we see Spurs lodge a bid for the English hitman? Even Mario Gomez of FC Bayern and Robert Lewandowski of BVB in the Bundesliga could be on the way out of their clubs in the summer, could we see Spurs go in for either of these poachers in an attempt to push on in the league?
Who knows.
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