• Premier League

Tottenham must move on from Bale - AVB

Tottenham have struggled to score goals without Gareth Bale this season © Getty Images

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Andre Villas-Boas says he felt no emotion about seeing Gareth Bale in a Real Madrid kit for the first time, and he thinks that Tottenham have "evolved".

As such, the Spurs boss has said he is not concerned about the fact the side have not scored from open play yet, and that his new players will gel in time.

When specifically asked about his reaction to Bale's unveiling at the Bernabeu, Villas-Boas denied any strong feelings.

'A debut impossible to forget'

Jonathan Woodgate scored an own goal and was sent off on his Bernabeu bow © Getty Images

• With Gareth Bale set to make his first appearance for Real Madrid on Saturday after his £86 million move from Tottenham, we look back at another player who swapped the Premier League for La Liga.
• Click here for more.

"We lost a wonderful footballer that gave us so much last season and we wish him all the best. What we have to do is move on. He's going to a great club, the biggest club in the history of football, and he will want to succeed there, and we wish him well in Real Madrid.

Spurs have struggled in terms of scoring without last season's talisman, only hitting two goals in their first three Premier League games with both of them coming from penalties.

"I don't think it's a concern. I'm not worried whatsoever. In [Roberto] Soldado and [Jermain] Defoe we have two great goal-scorers and we just need to make the right decision. We've been getting penalty kicks to finish our situations, but I'm not worried about scoring.

"We have evolved because we have invested a lot in young players and we want to develop a strong team to be among the elite of English football. That's what we strive for. It would have been made easier with him [Bale], with a player of his dimension, but in the end we were in a position where we had to think what would be the consequences of our acts, and how difficult it would have been to bring the player back to a level of motivation to play for us."

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