Villas-Boas impressed by Spurs attitude

Andre Villas-Boas has praised the ‘fantastic’ team spirit at Tottenham Hotspur compared to what he experienced during his time at Chelsea.

The Portuguese coach succeeded Harry Redknapp at White Hart Lane earlier this month, having been sacked from Chelsea in March after 10 months in west London.

Villas-Boas, 34, reportedly alienated some senior players at Chelsea, contributing to his early departure from Stamford Bridge.

And the former Porto manager hinted the morale among the Spurs squad was an improvement on his previous club.

“They are a great group who are enjoying what they are doing,” he told reporters.

“I think the warmth of the group is excellent to see, and you know two different groups react differently.

“And we’ve seen that the spirit within this group has been fantastic – it’s different from what I had in the last year.”

Villas-Boas also played down comments from FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who suggested Gareth Bale should be banned after appearing in pre-season for Spurs, despite withdrawing from Great Britain’s Olympic team due to injury.

“I can understand the frustration for missing a player of Gareth’s dimensions involved with Team GB,” he said.

“But everything was done as it should be. It was approved by the FA doctors regarding his injury, so for me it is the end of story.

“He (Blatter) has decided to speak, maybe not knowing the full extent of the situation. They are unfortunate comments, but I can’t make any more comment because he is the FIFA president.”