adminLONDON. — Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas revealed yesterday he has asked Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor to train with the Premier League club’s reserve team. The 29-year-old has fallen down the pecking order at Spurs following the arrival of Roberto Soldado from Valencia and was recently granted leave to return to Togo after the death of his brother, Peter.
Adebayor is due to return to London on Monday and Villas-Boas says that when he does, he will have to train with the club’s second-string players.
“At the moment Ade is not with us, because we have granted him authorisation to stay up until Monday in his country for personal reasons, so he’s not going to be involved against Norwich (on Saturday),” Villas-Boas said.
“Up to when I find it appropriate, he will train with the development team.”
Tottenham signed so many new players during the summer transfer window that even Villas-Boas is liable to forgetting the name of one of his top stars.
The Spurs boss smiled after he had to be prompted to remember Christian Eriksen’s name when discussing the £11,8 million capture from Ajax during his pre-match Press conference ahead of tomorrow’s Premier League clash against Norwich.
Villas-Boas can be forgiven for his slip of the tongue, however, since his time on the training pitch with the 21-year-old — as well as many of his other summer signings — has been severely limited owing to the international break.
Eriksen only arrived in north London on Friday September 6 — four days after the transfer window shut — and then joined up with the Denmark squad before arriving back in England on Thursday.
Villas-Boas, however, said there was a ‘‘big possibility’’ the Dane could feature against Norwich as he labelled the player a future ‘‘world star’’ and compared him to former Ajax men Wesley Sneijder and Rafael Van der Vaart.
Erik Lamela, though, only ‘‘landed in England this morning’’, has yet to train with the Spurs squad and ‘‘does not speak a word of English’,’ while Vlad Chiriches has still to have his work permit finalised.
Villas-Boas said: ‘‘We have gone the past six weeks in pre-season where our starting squad had nothing to do with the way we finished in the transfer window.
‘‘At the moment every time we have to bond together is essential, to form a team. The players have really stepped up a level in terms of individual quality. It looks like a new start for us.
‘‘It’s difficult to think of how much time it’s going to take (for the squad to gel).
“What makes it a little bit easier is the amount of games in September and October, because it’s with games we have the opportunity to put them together and get to know each other.
‘‘We have five fixtures in September that allow us to have the opportunity to throw them into the pitch and see them develop.’’
The Tottenham boss, though, said he was happy with Kyle Walker’s state of mind after the right back had a poor game for England against Ukraine following Sunday newspaper revelations about his private life.
Walker was pictured inhaling nitrous oxide from a balloon during a night out in Sheffield earlier in the summer, prompting a public apology from the England international, whom Villas-Boas said had ‘failed as a role model’.
The Spurs manager said: ‘‘I spoke with Kyle Walker before the story came out because the incident was a long time ago.
‘‘The player has assumed the responsibility of having failed to set an example, which I think is something that is honourable, but you wouldn’t expect him to do it again. He accepted the responsibility of having failed as a role model towards young people and I don’t think we will see the incident again. I spoke to him (again). I think he has assured me of what he has told also publicly.” — AFP/Mailonline.
Online Reporter