Andre Villas-Boas says new boy Eriksen can emulate other former Ajax stars.
Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas believes new signing Christian Eriksen can emulate Dutch stars Wesley Sneijder and Rafa van der Vaart.
Eriksen joined Spurs from Ajax in an £11.5m deal late last month but is yet to make an appearance for the North London outfit, after immediately jetting off for international duty with Denmark.
Check out the video of Eriksen’s great solo goal in Thursday’s training for Spurs below:
Villas-Boas is considering handing the 21-year-old his debut against Norwich on Saturday and said he hoped the playmaker would become as influential as Sneijder and Van der Vaart, both of whom left Ajax at a similar age.
“What we did in the transfer market is in the expectancy of these players becoming world stars,” Villas-Boas is quoted as saying by The Tottenham Journal.
“I think what happened with Christian is a bit like what happened with Van der Vaart and Sneijder when they were at Ajax.
“They reached a moment in their careers where they became extremely important for the team, and the club that goes there and gets them makes a great transfer move, and we expect great things of Christian Eriksen.
“We would like to develop him into becoming that type of important player for us as well.
“Will he be in the line-up this weekend? There is a big possibility but it’s not a certainty yet.
“The market finished last Monday and we signed three players that trained for the first time with us on Friday two weeks ago. They have since departed to international duty, and we’ve just seen him back today.
“To train with the team, to have the experiences with their colleagues – for Eriksen, for Vlad [Chiriches] and [Erik] Lamela – they haven’t had enough time to bond together so it’s something we have to work on.”
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