• Premier League

AVB cool on Tottenham transfer talk

Tottenham were dumped out of the FA Cup by Leeds © AP

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Andre Villas-Boas believes Tottenham are unlikely to recruit in the January transfer window, even though he was left without a senior striker in Sunday's FA Cup defeat to Leeds.

Spurs are reported to be making a bid to fast track their deal for midfielder Lewis Holtby, who is set to arrive in the summer when his Schalke contract expires, but manager Villas-Boas expects to have the same squad at the start of February.

Iff Tottenham do conduct any business, Villas-Boas says it is more likely that a player will leave than come in at White Hart Lane.

"I don't think so, no," he said, when asked if he will add to his squad before the window closes on January 31. When questioned specifically about whether Holtby will arrive early, he replied: "Not sure, probably not."

Villas-Boas defended the composition of his Tottenham squad, which only contains two specialist strikers.

Emmanuel Adebayor is representing Togo at the African Cup of Nations and Jermain Defoe missed the Leeds game with a minor injury, leaving midfielder Clint Dempsey to lead the line with the untried Jonathan Obika, who has never made a league appearance for Spurs, as the only attacker on the bench.

"We are happy with the options we have," Villas-Boas said. "We understand an injury can put us in a difficult position. Obviously it is a risk we are willing to take."

Villas-Boas accepted his side were below par as they were defeated 2-1 by Leeds.

"It was a difficult game to play, the second half was better than the first but we could have done better to avoid the defeat," he said. "We could have done better defensively and offensively."

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