EPL top 3 spenders

The Premier League outspent the rest of Europe this summer with expenditure in excess of £610 million.Let's take a look at top 3 spenders of EPL. 

Chelsea - £69 m

Chelsea have improved his squad to the tune of nearly £70 million. Andre Schurrle was the big signing at just under £20 million for most of the summer, but the capture of Willian for a whopping £33 million from under the noses of Spurs and Liverpool ends up accounting for almost half of the Stamford Bridge club's total outlay. 

Can Mourinho mould his bloated, attacking midfield-heavy squad into one that can challenge for the Premier League title once more? 

Manchester City - £102 m

Manchester City have been amongst the biggest spenders in the Premier League, but they were pipped to that particular title this time around. However, They crashed through the £100 million barrier, with Brazilian midfielder Fernandinho at £35 million, Ex Sevilla teammates Alvaro Negredo and Jesus Navas , Floreintina Stevan Jovetic and Martin Demichelis, a late signing off Atletico Madrid, will provide depth in defence. 
New manager Manuel Pellegrini will be expected to take his new charges and go one better than Roberto Mancini managed last year when the league was won by rivals Manchester United. 

Tottenham Hotspur -  £107 m

Despite comfortably surpassing the £100 million mark, Spurs have actually barely spent anything at all. Eight senior departures have been offset by seven signings, with an eclectic mix of attackers expected to really push Andre Villas-Boas' men toward the top four this season. 

They will have a huge task on their hands to manage that given the competition, but the likes of Roberto Soldado at £26 million and Erik Lamela at £27 million will give them a big opportunity to do so. 

Of course, the world-record sale of Gareth Bale gave them the funds to do such business—but has it also robbed them of their most potent weapon? 

Spur sign Ajax star Christian Eriksen

It is turning out to be the best transfer window for Tottenham as they have signed Ajax star Christian Eriksen in an effort to bolster their midfield and prepare for Bale departure late in the transfer window.

He's coming off his most production term to date, in which he tallied 13 goals across all competitions. The 21-year-old Danish international had flashed terrific potential since the early stages of his career.
After being transfer targets for many big club but choosing to stay at Ajax, Now he's ready for the bigger challenges. Eriksen possesses a terrific combination of vision and creativity, which when paired with his pinpoint passing ability, makes for a potent playmaker.
If he continues to progress as expected, the deal will likely end up looking like a bargain for his new club over the long haul. Furthermore, he should be able to make an instant impact. Unlike some young players, who arrived to big clubs a couple years away from making serious contributions, Eriksen is ready to hit the ground running after starting the new season in solid form.
He will still have to improve defensively if he's going to play a box-to-box midfield role. But that's usually something that comes with experience for young players, and Eriksenis no different. 

He's ready for the opportunity.

AVB preparing Spurs for life without Bale

If  rumours are to be believed he could be about to bring the London outfit’s summer spending to more than £100 million, having already doled out nearly £58 million on Etienne Capoue, Nacer Chadli, Paulinho and Roberto Soldado. Brazilian attacker Willian and Argentine forward Erik Lamela are the latest players in his sights.
Naturally, this news would seem to indicate the imminent departure of Gareth Bale, who is a much-publicized transfer target of Real Madrid. And while losing Bale would obviously be a blow (he scored 21 Premier League goals last term and picked up both the PFA Players’ Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year awards), his transfer saga has hung like a cloud over White Hart Lane the past few months and Villas-Boas, who would no doubt prefer to tailor his preparations for players he can expect to be in the side, could

 be forgiven for simply wanting to move forward—even without the Welshman.
The arrivals of Willian and Lamela would represent a big part of that process, not only in replacing Bale with players of some quality but also in their positional preferences.
Willian—a left-sided playmaker—and Lamela—a forward comfortable on either flank—seem perfectly suited to the 4-3-3 formation Villas-Boas almost certainly wants to use this season, and with Soldado between them and Paulinho in the centre of the park alongside the likes of Capoue and Mousa Dembele it appears that’s exactly what the now-35-year-old has in mind at the outset of the campaign.
Of course, both will offer something a bit different, just as Hulk and Varela did for Falcao in 2011. Lamela, likely to operate on the right at Spurs, is a goal-scoring forward who tallied 15 times for Roma in Serie A last season. He will also offer a threat from distance, and his ability to play an accurate pass and use his attacking teammates makes him exactly the sort of asset Villas-Boas is looking for.
Willian, meanwhile, won’t deliver the same number of goals as Lamela, but the right-footed attacker will ensure that the Argentine, Soldado and whichever midfielders are moving forward are constant, dangerous threats in the final third.
He is also careful to place his shots on goal and in four appearances for Anzhi Makhachkala this season has yet to miss the target. (Statistics courtesy of Squawka.com) Both players are also statistically better passers than Bale, whose 78 percent completion rate in 2012-13 had him below Lamela’s 82 percent and the 85 percent Willian has compiled over the last few weeks. Now, neither will be able to bring the sort of magic that saw Bale change the course of matches in an instant last season, but that’s not necessarily what Villas-Boas will be trying to coax from his reassembled squad.

The Tottenham Hotspur of 2013-14 will be more fluid, more efficient than in years past, and if Villas-Boas can deliver the sort of success his system brought him at Porto in 2011, the fans of his current club will have little to complain about.

Madrid captures Bale in a record £93 mn deal

If rumours are to be believed Tottenham Hotspur star Gareth Bale will complete his move to Real Madrid on Friday. 
The 24-year-old has been a target for the Spanish giants throughout the summer, and the long-running saga over his world-record transfer is set to come to an end within 24 hours. The Wales international will become the world's most expensive player in a £93 million deal.

The previous world-record transfer fee was set when Real paid £80 million to Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo in July 2009.  Real Madrid defender Fabio Coentrao is set to join Spurs as part of the deal.
Tottenham technical director Franco Baldini is currently in Madrid to finalise the move for Bale, which will also see Erik Lamela join the White Hart Lane club from AS Roma.
Bale joined Spurs from Southampton in 2007 and has scored 42 goals in 146 Premier League appearances for the White Hart Lane side.
Real want Bale to make his debut in the televised La Liga clash against Athletic Bilbao a week from Sunday. The report claims Bernabeu president Florentino Perez wants to maximise the arrival of Bale in the midday kickoff to television audiences in the Far East and Asia.
Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas has been building his squad with the arrivals of players such as Roberto Soldado, Etienne Capoue, Paulinho and Nacer Chadli.
The North London club are also hoping to add Willian to their squad from Anzhi Makhachkala in a £30 million deal, which will take their spending during the current transfer window to almost £90 million. Spurs have recouped £23 million from the departures of Steven Caulker, Clint Dempsey, Scott Parker and Tom Huddlestone this summer.

Soldado scores as Spurs beats Crystal Palace

With all the rumours surrounding Bale and with the him being on the sidelines AVB had the tough task to unite the players and they took three points from their first match of the season with a hard-fought 1-0 win over newly promoted Crystal Palace.

The home side matched their bigger opponents for most of the first half, despite not creating too much themselves, and the match was well poised at the break. Even in the second half, neither goalkeeper was called upon to make too many saves, with the only goal coming from the penalty spot. Aaron Lennon's run down the flank ended in a hand ball by Dean Moxey, and debutant Roberto Soldado buried the resulting penalty.

A late flurry of pressure from Palace after a triple-change by manager Ian Holloway gave some hope to the home fans, but Hugo Lloris was in excellent form to close out most of the danger before it resulted in clear shooting opportunities.

Stats

Shots: 5-18
On target: 3-3
Possession: 42%-58%

watch the highlights Passing: 70%-85%

Spur without Bale power in their opening salvo

Gareth Bale will miss Tottenham Hotspur's first Premier League game of the season, manager Andre Villas-Boas has revealed.

 The 24-year-old did not play for Wales in the international friendly against the Republic of Ireland this week due to a foot injury. When asked if Bale would play against Crystal Palace on Sunday,
Villas-Boas told Sky Sports the following: No, because he's been out injured for most of pre-season. He was involved in the games against Brentford and Swindon but not any others, for different reasons; pulled a muscle in his gluteus that prevented him from being involved for two weeks and he's been complaining of pain in the foot. For the most part, he has spent his time as the subject of persistent transfer rumours.
With the Real Madrid target now missing Tottenham's first league game of the season, speculation over the player's future is likely to escalate even more.
 A world-record fee of £85 million for the player had been suggested, as Sky Sportsreported, but Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has slapped a £105 million figure on Bale, according to Darren Lewis of the Daily Mirror. Levy has become concerned that Real do not have the funds available to finance the world-record move for the former Southampton man, according to Lewis. What's more, Real's public pursuit of Bale during the summer has angered Tottenham and manager Villas-Boas, as BBC Sport reported earlier this month. The White Hart Lane club will continue their efforts to persuade Bale to stay at the club. They have already spent £50 million on Paulinho, Roberto Soldado and Nacer Chadli, while BBC Sport broke the news on Thursday morning that Etienne Capoue has completed his £9 million move from Toulouse. 

Moving forward, Spurs are seeking even more new arrivals before the transfer window closes on Sept. 2, according to Tony Banks of Express. That includes targets of Erik Lamela from Roma, Ajax midfielder Christian Eriksen and Willian of Anzhi Makhachkala.