Big-spending Spurs eye late bid for Villa

Tottenham hope to make three more major signings before the season starts and take their summer spending closer to £100million.

Head coach Juande Ramos is not satisfied with his squad despite having already seen around £46m worth of talent arrive in the form of Luka Modric, David Bentley, Heurelho Gomes, Giovani dos Santos and John Bostock.

He is determined to buy another striker, especially with Dimitar Berbatov expected to follow Robbie Keane out of White Hart Lane.

The deal to sign Andrei Arshavin from Zenit St Petersburg is proving difficult and it seems the club are considering making a last-ditch bid to buy David Villa from Valencia instead.

Spurs have admired Villa for some time, but Valencia's asking price of more than £30m had scared them off. However, no club have made a move for the Spain star so far and they haven't given up hope, particularly as money is available having recouped £37m in player sales in recent weeks.

Ramos is desperate to sign a centre half as captain Ledley King is not expected to be able to play regularly due to his old knee injuries while Younes Kaboul is set to leave.