Veteran defender’s contract runs out this summer.
Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas says that the club will allow one of their current crop of centre backs to leave at the end of this season, reports the Guardian.
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At present, the North Londoners have five central defenders at White Hart Lane, but the Portuguese says that is one too many, with veteran France international William Gallas the most likely to depart.
Gallas is 35 years old, while his contract at Tottenham expires this summer although the defender, who has featured in over half of the club’s games this campaign would like to stay at Spurs if offered a new deal.
“We had to improve in games against some of the so-called small teams,” Gallas said. “When we play these teams we have to take three points and if we compare this season to last season, we are starting to do this. The players now have the right mentality, they want to win every game. If we don’t, you see that the players are very upset and two years ago they didn’t feel like that. They will definitely win something, if not this season then next season.”
However, one defender who will not now be leaving is Michael Dawson, despite Villas-Boas putting the player up for sale last summer and telling him that he could leave the club, a decision the coach now admits was a mistake.
“We are grateful, in the end. We ended up being on the better side by the fact he agreed to stay with us,” said Villas-Boas. “We were lucky in that sense. We won’t start another season with five [central defenders]. We have five top central defenders at the moment, a mixture of young players coming through with lots of experience, and then you have such tremendous central defenders as William [Gallas], Dawson and Younès Kaboul.
“My squads in the past are built on four central defenders. We decided to go with five this season because of a setback to Younès Kaboul. William has been a massive player for us this season … he’s a player we trust a lot. Whatever we decide regarding his future, we’ll have to wait and see, but we are aware of what a presence he’s been for us this season.”
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