Villas-Boas Tips Eriksen to Emulate Sneijder and Van der Vaart

Andre Villas-Boas believes Christian Eriksen will evolve into the calibre of player Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart became after leaving Holland, confident the Dane can become just as influential for Tottenham.

The Denmark international signed for Spurs from Ajax during the closing days of the summer transfer window for a fee of £11.8m after deciding he was ready to move on from the famous Dutch giants.

Two of the many esteemed graduates of the revered Ajax academy include Champions League winner Sneijder and former Spurs talisman van der Vaart, who left Amsterdam for Real Madrid and Hamburg respectively.

The Holland internationals have since played hugely influential roles at clubs across Europe after leaving the Dutch capital, and the Tottenham boss believes 21-year-old Eriksen is primed to deliver a similar impact at White Hart Lane for years to come.

"What we did in the transfer market is in the expectancy of these players becoming world stars," Villas-Boas told reporters on Thursday.

"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."

Tottenham are now close to being able to utilise all seven of their summer arrivals after the club's most expensive transfer window in history.

While Eriksen could be in line to make his first appearance for the club against Norwich City this Saturday, record signing Erik Lamela is likely to be given more time while Romanian international Vlad Chiriches is still to have his work permit finalised, according to the Daily Mail.