Tottenham draw up shortlist of replacements for manager Andre Villas-Boas

Club have identified potential successors as pressure mounts on manager ahead of Manchester United clash.

Feeling the heat: the pressure on Andre Villas-Boas is understood to be taking its toll on the Spurs manager Photo: EPA

Tottenham Hotspur have tentatively drawn up a list of potential replacements should they decide to sack Andre Villas-Boas as their head coach.

Tottenham face Manchester United at White Hart Lane with pressure mounting on Villas-Boas, whose side lie ninth in the Premier League having spent £107 million in the summer. They have scored just nine league goals this season. 

Villas-Boas knows he is under growing scrutiny and is believed to accept that it is understandable after last weekend’s 6-0 defeat away to Manchester City. However, a victory against United could appease the club’s board and ease Villas-Boas’s own concerns.

Despite Tottenham’s decision to compile a list of candidates, it is believed to be a contingency plan rather a move motivated by a great desire to sack the Portuguese at present. No approaches have been made at any level and it is hoped that Tottenham will show patience with their coach.

There has, nevertheless, been strain behind the scenes at White Hart Lane. That was partly inevitable after a summer of upheaval with Gareth Bale sold to Real Madrid for a world-record £85 million fee and seven players signing. Despite that, Villas-Boas is supported by the club’s director of football Franco Baldini.