Ledley King: Tottenham's Improved Squad Can Achieve Top Four Finish

Ledley King believes that his former club Tottenham Hotspur can achieve a top four finish this season despite Gareth Bale completing his protracted move to Real Madrid.

Spurs finally agreed to sell Bale for a world record transfer fee of £85.3m but have sufficiently strengthened their squad after spending close to £105m on seven new players.

Having broken their transfer record on three occasions to land Paulinho, Roberto Soldado and Erik Lamela, there is a sense of optimism at White Hart Lane as the club look to finally break back into the top four.

That feeling of hope was somewhat dented after the 1-0 loss to Arsenal last weekend as Tottenham's new signings failed to gel in their first true test.

However, King was far from surprised to see the new additions fail to make a big impact in the first north London derby of the season.

"Yeah I think when you bring in the players we've brought in, you would think they would hit the ground running, but it's not realistic," King told BBC Sport.

"The Premier League is the most demanding league. It's totally different to any other league in the world. There are no easy games and the players will understand that."

Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas will hope that his new look squad can excel this season and King feels that having more strength in depth makes them more dangerous, despite the loss of Bale.

"The problems you have if you rely on that one player is injuries. My theory is that we have a stronger squad," explained the former England defender.

Asked whether he thought Spurs could conquer the top four, he added: "Yeah I believe so and that is through the talent in the squad. We have a young manager who wants to learn, do well and bed in now so everyone will see the benefits of that."