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Tottenham sack Villas-Boas as EPL manager

Andre Villas-Boas has been sacked as manager of Tottenham Hotspur after 17 months in the role, the English Premier League club announced on Monday.

Spurs were thrashed 5-0 by Liverpool on Sunday, leaving the north London club five points below the Champions League places in seventh on the EPL table.

“The club can announce that agreement has been reached with head coach, Andre Villas-Boas, for the termination of his services,” read a statement on the Tottenham website.

“The decision was by mutual consent and in the interests of all parties. We wish Andre well for the future. We shall make a further announcement in due course.”

Villas-Boas, 36, had also seen his side demolished 6-0 at Manchester City last month, despite Spurs having invested around STG105 million ($A192 million) on new players during the off-season.

That expenditure was offset by the Gareth Bale’s sale to Real Madrid, but Spurs have scored just 15 goals in their 16 league games this season.

Villas-Boas’ dismissal represents his second consecutive failure at a London side after being sacked by Chelsea in 2012 after only nine months at the Stamford Bridge helm.

He joined Spurs the following July but, despite leading the club to their highest points tally of the EPL era last season (72), they missed out on a Champions League place to arch-rivals Arsenal.

Speaking after the Liverpool drubbing, Villas-Boas had vowed he would not walk away.

“The call to make that decision is not mine because, obviously, I won’t resign and I’m not a quitter.

“The only thing I can do is work hard with the players to get them back on track. This is a top-four squad but, in our Premier League form, we are not there.”

While Spurs have misfired in the league, they qualified for the Europa League last 32, winning all six group games and were paired with Ukrainian side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in Friday’s draw.

They will also play West Ham United in the League Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Villas-Boas becomes the fifth EPL manager to lose his job this season.

Paolo Di Canio was the first to go at Sunderland, followed by Ian Holloway at Crystal Palace and Martin Jol at Fulham, while West Bromwich Albion sacked Steve Clarke on Saturday.

Russian coach Fabio Capello, the former England manager, was swiftly installed as favourite to succeed Villas-Boas.

Swansea City manager Michael Laudrup is also reportedly in contention, but Guus Hiddink’s agent ruled the experienced Dutchman out of the running as he is due to become Netherlands coach for a second time after next year’s World Cup.

“I would be surprised if (Hiddink) went to Spurs. I could hardly imagine that happening,” Cees van Nieuwenhuizen said.

“He has just signed a contract with Holland and he has also turned down offers from other countries recently to coach them at the World Cup, so I wouldn’t take any talk of Guus going to Tottenham seriously.”

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